Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican\u2019s secretary of state, is warning that U.S. and Israeli bombings against Iran \u2014 and Tehran\u2019s ensuing military response \u2014 could trigger a global spiral of violence with unpredictable consequences.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Vatican News, the Holy See\u2019s official news outlet, on March 4, Parolin lamented what he described as a troubling weakening of international law. \u201cMight has replaced justice; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Parolin said he is concerned the world is drifting toward what he called a dangerous form of multi-polarism marked by the primacy of power and political self-reference.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he launched the offensive after receiving indications Iran was about to carry out an attack and that action was needed to prevent retaliation against U.S. bases. Asked about the justification, Parolin said it can be difficult to determine who is right or wrong when analyzing the causes of a war, but he stressed that conflict \u201cwill always produce victims and destruction,\u201d with devastating effects on civilians.<\/p>\n
The Vatican secretary of state was particularly critical of the logic of preventive war, warning that if every state claimed a right to launch a \u201cpreventive war\u201d according to its own criteria and without a supranational legal framework, the entire world would risk going up in flames.<\/p>\n
Parolin said he is living through the current moment \u201cwith great sorrow,\u201d noting that the peoples of the Middle East \u2014 including Christian communities \u2014 \u201chave once again fallen into the horror of war,\u201d which destroys human life, causes devastation, and pulls entire nations into spirals of violence with uncertain outcomes.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to Pope Leo XIV\u2019s remarks during Sunday\u2019s Angelus, when the pope spoke of a \u201ctragedy of enormous proportions\u201d and the risk of an \u201cirreparable maelstrom,\u201d language Parolin said accurately captures the gravity of the moment.<\/p>\n
Addressing the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran, Parolin said peace and security must be pursued through diplomacy, especially within multilateral bodies such as the United Nations.<\/p>\n
He recalled that the United Nations\u2019 founders, in the wake of World War II, sought to prevent new horrors by establishing rules for managing conflicts. Today, he said, diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks broad consensus is increasingly being replaced by a \u201cdiplomacy of force,\u201d rooted in the belief that peace can be achieved \u201cthrough weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parolin insisted that the use of force must remain an \u201cultimate and most grave\u201d recourse, after exhausting every tool of dialogue and within a multilateral framework of governance. Otherwise, he said, the \u201claw of force\u201d takes the place of the force of law \u2014 and peace is treated as something that comes only after the annihilation of an enemy.<\/p>\n
The cardinal also condemned what he described as the selective application of international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no first- and second-class dead, nor people who have more right to live than others,\u201d he said, rejecting the idea that civilian casualties can be reduced to \u201ccollateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parolin reiterated the importance of international humanitarian law, stressing that respect for it cannot depend on circumstances or military or strategic interests. He underlined the duty to protect civilians and infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and places of worship.<\/p>\n
Parolin argued that the current decline reflects a loss of awareness of the common good: \u201cThe awareness has weakened that the good of the other is also a good for me,\u201d he said. That erosion, he added, has fueled a deep crisis in the multilateral system and weakened principles such as peoples\u2019 self-determination and territorial sovereignty.<\/p>\n
He concluded by expressing hope that the pope\u2019s appeal will be heard and that \u201cthe noise of weapons will soon cease\u201d and negotiations resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur peoples are asking for peace,\u201d Parolin said, adding that the pope\u2019s call \u201cshould shake leaders \u2026 and prompt them to multiply their efforts in favor of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n