The Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations on Sunday also issued a statement, “categorically declar[ing] that no one will ever force our people to capitulate.”
“To capitulate to the triumphant evil is tantamount to the collapse of the universal idea of justice, a betrayal of the fundamental guidelines bequeathed to us in great spiritual traditions,” their statement continued.
The Holy See Press Office quickly qualified the pope’s statements late on Saturday night, suggesting that the 87-year-old pontiff “intended to call for a cease-fire and to relaunch the courage of negotiation,” adding that “the pope uses the term white flag, and responds by picking up the image proposed by the interviewer, to indicate a cessation of hostilities, a truce reached with the courage of negotiation.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, also issued clarifying remarks in a Monday, March 11, interview with Corriere della Sera, saying that it is incumbent upon Russia “as the aggressor” to “put an end to the aggression.”
“The war unleashed against Ukraine is not the effect of an uncontrollable natural disaster but of human freedom alone, and the same human will that caused this tragedy also has the possibility and responsibility to take steps to put an end to it and pave the way to a diplomatic solution,” the Vatican’s top diplomat said.
But Parolin reiterated the pope’s concerns that a protracted conflict could escalate into a larger conflict and exacerbate an already-large humanitarian crisis, saying that it would bring “new suffering, new deaths, new victims, new destruction.”
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