The Hamas attack on Israel two years ago “was inhuman and indefensible”, the Vatican Secretary of State said this week, and Israel’s two-year-long war on Gaza has had “disastrous and inhuman consequences”. Source: NCR Online.
“It is unacceptable and unjustifiable to reduce human beings to mere ‘collateral damage’” in Israel’s stated goal of destroying Hamas, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.
The cardinal was interviewed by Vatican Media on Monday, the eve of the second anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s massive attack on the Gaza Strip.
“We prayed, and continue to pray, and we continue to ask that this perverse spiral of hatred and violence, which risks dragging us into an abyss with no return, come to an end,” the cardinal said.
As first Pope Francis and then Pope Leo have done nearly weekly, Cardinal Parolin also called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken on October 7, 2023.
“I am deeply struck and saddened by the images of these people held prisoner in tunnels, starved,” the cardinal said. “We cannot and must not forget them.”
Hamas is believed to still have 20 hostages who are alive and the bodies of another 25 or so who died in captivity.
The cardinal said he prays for the hostages’ families each day and continues “to offer our full availability to do whatever is possible to reunite them with their loved ones alive and safe – or at least receive the bodies of those who were killed, so that they may be properly buried”.
And as Leo did at his Jubilee audience on October 4, Cardinal Parolin condemned increasing signs of antisemitism around the world.
He noted that the Holy See officially recognised the State of Palestine in 2015, continuing its decades-long support of “a Palestinian state that is independent, sovereign, democratic and viable, encompassing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.”
The recognition of Palestine in late September by Australia, France, the UK and Canada was a positive development, Cardinal Parolin said, “but we note with concern that Israeli declarations and decisions are moving in the opposite direction – that is, aiming to prevent the possible birth of a real Palestinian state once and for all.”
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Top Vatican official sees ‘perverse spiral of hatred’ in Israel-Gaza war (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via NCR Online)
