Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, two days after reiterating the offer of Pope Francis for the Vatican to host peace negotiations over Ukraine, spoke at a Rome conference on the “Spirit of Helsinki” Dec. 13 and called for “work for a new European peace conference,” according to Vatican News. Parolin said the Holy See “is ready to do everything possible to encourage this process.”
The forum was the conference on “Europe and War: From the Spirit of Helsinki to Prospects of Peace,” hosted in Rome by the Italian Embassy to the Holy See. Vatican News quoted Parolin speaking of the conference in terms of peace for all nations: “We need to imagine and build a new project of peace and international solidarity, reminding ourselves that many countries ask to be heard and represented. We need new rules for international treaties, courage to bet on peace and not on the ineluctability of war.” Parolin also said “It is terrifying that there is now talk of nuclear devices and atomic warfare as a possibility.”
