VATICAN -The Pope: “The ‘third world war in pieces’ is increasingly turning into a real global conflict”

Monday, 8 January 2024 pope francis peace wars

https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2024-01/papa-francesco-discorso-corpo-diplomatico-santa-sede-guerra-pace.html

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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The "third world war in pieces" is turning into a "real global conflict", warns Pope Francis in his address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Referring to his oft-stated concept of a "world war in pieces," Pope Francis notes that conflicts not only have not diminished over the past year, but have actually expanded. The Pope also laments the weakening of multilateralism, noting that "the bodies created to promote security, peace and cooperation are no longer able to bring all their members together at the same table." "There is a risk of fragmentation (of the international community) into 'clubs' that only accept states that are ideologically similar," he lamented. "Modern wars no longer take place only on isolated battlefields, and they are no longer just about soldiers," said the Bishop of Rome. In a context in which the distinction between military and civilian objectives no longer seems to be observed, there is no conflict that does not affect the civilian population in some way". The civilian victims must not be viewed as "collateral damage," the Pope warns, because behind this expression are the faces and names of people, men, women and children. "If we could look each one of them in the eye, call them by name and tell their personal story, we would see the war for what it is: nothing but a horrific tragedy and a needless bloodbath that undermines the dignity of every human being violated on this earth," said the Pope. Pope Francis therefore called for respect for human rights and, even if one is forced to fight in self-defense, one must always consider the proportionality of the response. “The events in Ukraine and Gaza are clear evidence of this,” he continued: “We must not forget that serious violations of international humanitarian law are war crimes and that it is not enough to detect them, but rather to prevent them. We therefore need a stronger commitment from the international community to the protection and enforcement of international humanitarian law, which appears to be the only way to protect human dignity in situations of war." The path to peace leads through disarmament, because the accumulation of weapons only creates an illusory and deceptive deterrent. "Weapons create mistrust and waste resources. How many lives could be saved with the resources now spent on armaments? Wouldn't it be better to invest them in real global security?" asks the Pope. “The path to peace requires respect for human rights, as they are expressed simply and clearly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose 75th anniversary we have just celebrated,” Pope Francis recalled, emphasizing that "these are rationally evident and generally recognized principles". “Unfortunately,” he added, “the attempts of recent decades to introduce new rights that do not fully correspond to those originally defined and are not always acceptable have led to an ideological colonization, among which gender theory plays a central role which is extremely dangerous because it erases differences with the aim of making everyone equal". After pointing out the scourge of anti-Semitism, the Bishop of Rome recalled that "there are more than 360 million Christians in the world, who experience high levels of persecution and discrimination because of their faith and who are increasingly being forced to flee their home countries. Human life must be respected from conception. In this context, Pope Francis calls the practice of so-called surrogacy “deplorable,” which, he says, “severely violates the dignity of the woman and the child” and “is based on the exploitation of the mother’s material need.” For Pope Francis, further challenges to peace arise from new technologies such as artificial intelligence and genomics. For the Pope, "special attention" must be paid to the protection of human genetic heritage "in order to prevent practices that are contrary to human dignity, such as the patenting of human biological material and the cloning of human beings". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 8/1/2024)