Vatican Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations Archbishop Paul Gallagher was interviewed Feb. 23 by Vatican News on the Vatican effort to bring peace to Ukraine. Without ever going into the details of the Vatican initiative, Gallagher said that it is informed by the will of “always keeping a certain openness towards the stakeholders, for a future negotiation that should put an end to this terrible war. I think that this is our role. Whereas for Ukraine itself and for many others it is difficult to speak of dialogue and peace, of reconciliation, this is something that the Church, the Holy See and the Holy Father can and should do, and this is fundamental: keeping the dream of peace in mind. We understand how difficult it is for many at this terrible time of suffering, to think about peace in these terms, but someone has to do so because in the end there will be a conclusion to this terrible war, and we hope that this end may come soon.”
Further on, he says that “while recognizing the seriousness of Russia’s actions, we see that Russia is a very important country, a country with a long history, and in the end we have to rebuild peace relations with this Russia, in the future. And this also makes the progression of the war particularly difficult.”
