While disarmament is the only just response to war, it is not correct to ask the attacked side to lay down their arms.
That's what Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin stated in an interview with the Italian news journal Limes, in which he expounded the Catechism's provision for legitimate armed defense if all other modes of avoiding conflict have been exhausted.
That's how the Vatican's top diplomat characterized the war in Ukraine two months after the war's outbreak, saying it was the result of a historical decline in multilateralism.
CARD. PIETRO PAROLIN
Vatican Secretary of State
I have the impression that this war was in a certain sense an obvious consequence of a process that has been taking place in the last decades.
You could see that nations and world leaders no longer believed in common solutions to problems.
In the interview, the Cardinal also responded to claims that Pope Francis is pro-Russian, saying that the label is a “simplification,” and that his condemnations of the Russian aggression against Ukraine have been unequivocal.
Cardinal Parolin also said that as of yet, there appears to be no positive response to third-party mediation efforts, although he reiterated the Pope's desire to travel to Kyiv and express his closeness to the Ukrainian people.
JM
