Testo originale del articolo in inglese qui
The meeting, chaired by Dominique Mamberti, Prefect of the Supreme Court of Apostolic Segnatura, was attended by Massimo de Leonardis, professor of the History of International Relations (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan); Johan Ickx, Director of the Historical Archive of the Vatican State Secretariat (Section for Relations with the States); and Andrea Tornielli, Editorial Director of Vatican Media. The Pope's role in the armed conflicts is not a minor issue born today from the war in Ukraine.
The Pope's new book
The reflections of Pope Francis contained in his recent publication. Contro la guerra. Il coraggio di costruire la pace (published by Solferino) shows the need for fraternity and denounces the insanity of war.
Sono pagine impregnate della sofferenza delle vittime in Ucraina, dei volti di coloro che hanno subito il conflitto in Iraq, delle vicende storiche di Hiroshima e dell'eredità delle due guerre mondiali del XX secolo.
Francesco identifies in the greed for power, in the international relations dominated by the military force, in the ostentation of the military arsenals, the deep motivations of the wars that today still stain the planet with blood. These are encounters that bring death, distraction and suffering and that lead to new deaths and new destructions, in a spiral to which only the conversion of the hearts can put an end.
The Pontifical War Magisterium
Dialogue as a political art, the artistic construction of peace, which starts from the heart and extends to the world, the diversion of nuclear weapons and disarmament as a strategic option, are the concrete indications that Francesco gives us why peace truly becomes the shared orbit on which to build our future. Because nothing truly human can be born of war.
The Pope follows in the footsteps of the teachings of his predecessors: the appeal with which in 1962 St. John XXIII called on the powers of his time to stop an escalation of war that could have ended the world in the abyss of nuclear conflict; the strength with which St. Paul VI, speaking in 1965 at the General Assembly of the United Nations, said: "No more war! No more war"; the numerous appeals to the peace of St. John Paul II, who in 1991 defined war as an "adventure without return".
"Sin dall'inizio del mio servizio di vescovo di Roma" - si legge nell'introduzione al volume - "ho parlato della terza guerra mondiale, dicendo che la stiamo già vivendo, anche se ancora a pezzi. That my pieces are becoming bigger and bigger, always paying off. At this moment there are many wars in the world, which cause immense pain and innocent victims, especially children. These are wars that provoke the flight of millions of people, who are forced to leave their lands, their houses and their cities destroyed in order to save their lives. These are the so many dimenticate wars that from time to time reappear in front of our distracted eyes".
The peace of war
Far from being the solution to the controversies, for Francesco war "is a folly, war is a show, war is a canker that feeds itself, destroying everything". In addition, war is a sacrilege, which "strains all that is most precious on our earth, human life, the innocence of children, the beauty of creation".
The solution is rather the one proposed by the encyclical Fratelli tutti: to use spare funds for arms and other military expenditures to create a World Fund aimed at definitively eliminating the famine and favoring the development of the poorest countries, to avoid violent or fugitive scorcities. A proposal that the Holy Father feels the need to renew "also today, especially today". Because "wars must be fought, and they will end only if we know how to give them food to eat".
Pius XII and the Hebrews
Another book - Pius XII e gli ebrei (Rizzoli 2021) - will probably offer the opportunity to shed light on the work of Pius XII, with reference to the interventions made by the Pope, coordinated by the Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione, and carried out by high ranking figures such as Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI). "I documenti inediti di Pio XII", writes Ickx, "contrastano la falsa narrativa precedentemente accettata da molti".
The Pope, in fact, "organized a network of escape routes for people in danger and watched over a network of priests operating throughout Europe with a single goal: to save human lives whenever possible". This is the second part of the cast of Pius XII, the "ebraic series" of the historical archive of the State Secretariat. A particular series, even by name (the others bear the name of specific countries), which contains about 2,800 requests for intervention or assistance and testifies to the extent to which the lot of these people was close to the heart of the Pope. The series recounts the fate of more than 4,000 Jews, some of them Catholics but of Jewish origin (because at a certain moment not even the war prevented their deportation).
The claims covered the period from 1938 to 1944 and intensified during the crucial years of the war. It was not always possible to save them all, but the "Hebrew series" "shows beyond any reasonable doubt," says Icks, "that Pius XII and his collaborators were committed to offering assistance to those who professed the Hebrew faith.
