ROME – In a wide-ranging interview, Pope Francis’s top diplomat said a recent vote and attempt by the European Parliament to style abortion as a fundamental right constitutes a “radical attack” on human life.
“When life is attacked in such a radical way, you truly have to ask what kind of future we want to build,” said Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, adding that the situation has produced “great sadness in the depths of my heart”.
Parolin, 69, spoke in an interview with Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, while in the city of Rimini in northern Italy for a national convention of Renewal in the Spirit, Italy’s leading Catholic charismatic movement.
While it was considered largely a symbolic result, given that amending the charter would require the consent of all 27 member states and both Poland and Malta have already indicated that they won’t approve the change, the result indicated widespread support for the move. There were 336 votes in favour, 163 against and 39 abstentions, while the vote also came with the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron who has just overseen France become the first country in the world to make abortion a constitutional right.
Parolin expressed distress at the way the issue is being handled: “I feel extremely sad facing this way of approaching the situation. How can we think that abortion is a right? That it can assure a future to our society?”
He added: “I don’t understand. I truly don’t understand.”
On other fronts, Parolin said there’s “great movement” towards an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.
Pope Francis used his Easter Urbi et Orbi address to appeal for a comprehensive prisoner exchange, and Parolin said he believes the Pope’s call has had an effect.
“I don’t have precise information, but from what I’ve heard there’s been a lot of movement in this direction,” Parolin said. “The appeal of the Pope, therefore, was heard and followed up.”
He added: “We think that concentrating on the humanitarian aspects – regarding both the prisoners and also the children – can create the conditions for arriving at negotiations, we hope, for the end of the war.”
On the war in Gaza, Parolin reaffirmed the Vatican’s longstanding support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The Holy See has contacts at various levels,” he said. “We’re moving on the diplomatic level to try to find an exit strategy. Certainly, the situation is extremely complicated.
“But it seems to me that there can be, in fact, that there are solutions. When we think of the two-state formula, there’s a concrete proposal towards which we should move,” Parolin said. “Maybe this can help find a definitive solution. Certainly, the first thing is to end the hostilities and assure at least a truce.”
Parolin also reiterated the Vatican’s willingness to act as a mediator in that war, as well as in Ukraine and wherever else conflicts are underway, should its help be requested.
“We’ve always said, in every possible situation, that where the parties believe the Holy See could be useful; that her presence would be welcomed, we are and will remain available,” he said.
“I’d like to recall, for example, what the Pope said at the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, more than two years ago, explicitly offering the mediation of the Holy See. That availability is valid in all contexts of war,” Parolin said. Photo: Cardinal Pietro Parolin. (Credit: Vatican Media, via Crux.)
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