The Holy See’s official news outlet marked the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the beginning of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza with an interview in which Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin decried the terrorist attack and the bloodshed that has followed.
Cardinal Parolin began by repeating his past condemnations of the “inhuman and indefensible” terrorist attack Hamas perpetrated in the Oct. 7 surprise attack, which took the lives of some 1,200 people, including over 700 civilians, among them women and children.
“The brutal violence against children, women, young people, the elderly — there can be no justification for it. It was a shameful and, I repeat, inhuman massacre,” Cardinal Parolin said. “The Holy See immediately expressed its total and firm condemnation, calling for the immediate release of the hostages and showing closeness to the families affected by the terrorist attack.”
“We prayed,” he added, “and continue to pray, and we continue to ask that this perverse spiral of hatred and violence, which risks dragging us into an abyss with no return, come to an end.”
The cardinal's comments come as the world awaits the potential finalization of a 20-point peace deal backed by the U.S. and agreed upon both by Arab nations and by Israel. Hamas announced its willingness to negotiate along the lines of the deal late last week, at which point President Donald Trump called for Israel to “immediately” stop its military operations in Gaza.
Massive protests broke out in Tel-Aviv Saturday, Oct. 4, with Israeli demonstrators pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to thwart the deal as reports spread of continued strikes during the two days after Trump called for them to stop. Trump has signaled his support for the protests, adding to the mounting international pressure on Netanyahu to cooperate with efforts to end the conflict.
As CatholicVote reported, Ruby Chen, “the father of the late 19-year-old Israeli-U.S. dual citizen Itay Chen, supports the peace deal and has put pressure on Netanyahu to abide by it. Itay Chen was murdered by Hamas militants after being taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023.”
“We went to sleep yesterday with cautious optimism after many months of deadlock,” the elder Chen stated Saturday. “Now it is on PM Netanyahu to show the same conviction to provide the Israeli negotiation team with a mandate to seal the deal.”
Chen had also posted, in agreement with Trump, “that Israel should stop bombing Gaza to create the infrastructure to release the hostages safely.”
Asked what he would like to say to the families of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, Cardinal Parolin said, “I am deeply struck and saddened by the images of these people held prisoner in tunnels, starved. We cannot and must not forget them.”
The secretary also noted that both the late Pope Francis and his successor, Pope Leo, have appealed for the release of the hostages numerous times.
Cardinal Parolin added, “I express my closeness to them all, praying daily for their suffering, and continue to offer our full availability to do whatever is possible to reunite them with their loved ones alive and safe — or at least receive the bodies of those who were killed, so that they may be properly buried.”
Asked what is required now to achieve peace, Cardinal Parolin stated that conditions in Gaza are now worse than ever “following a devastating war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. We need to recover a sense of reason, abandon the blind logic of hatred and revenge, and reject violence as a solution.”
“Those who are attacked have a right to defend themselves, but even legitimate defence must respect the principle of proportionality,” he continued. “Unfortunately, the resulting war has brought about disastrous and inhuman consequences… I am struck and deeply afflicted by the daily death toll in Palestine — dozens, sometimes hundreds, every day — so many children whose only fault seems to be having been born there.”
“We risk becoming desensitized to this carnage!” Cardinal Parolin warned. “People killed while trying to find a piece of bread, buried under the rubble of their homes, bombed in hospitals, in tent camps, displaced and forced to move from one end of that narrow, overcrowded territory to another … It is unacceptable and unjustifiable to reduce human beings to mere ‘collateral damage.’”
The cardinal went on to lament the rise of incidents of antisemitic violence as a “sad and equally unjustifiable consequence,” calling antisemitism “a cancer that must be fought and eradicated.”
“We live in a world of fake news, of oversimplified narratives,” he said. “This leads people who feed on these distortions to attribute responsibility for what is happening in Gaza to the Jewish people as a whole. But we know that is not true.”
“Many strong dissenting voices have also been raised within the Jewish world against how the current Israeli government has operated and continues to operate in Gaza and the rest of Palestine, where, let us not forget, settler expansionism, often violent, seeks to make the creation of a Palestinian State impossible,” the secretary pointed out.
“We must not forget what happened in the heart of Europe with the Shoah, and we must dedicate all our strength to ensuring that this evil does not rise again,” he continued.
“At the same time, we must ensure that acts of inhumanity and violations of humanitarian law are never justified: no Jew should be attacked or discriminated against for being Jewish, and no Palestinian should be attacked or discriminated against simply for being Palestinian, because, as is unfortunately sometimes said, they are ‘potential terrorists,’” the cardinal said. “The perverse chain of hatred can only generate a spiral that leads nowhere good. It is painful to see that we still fail to learn from history, even recent history, which remains a teacher of life.”
Cardinal Parolin argued that Israeli leaders are pursuing ends that frustrate efforts to achieve peace.
“It seems evident,” he said, “that the war waged by the Israeli army to eliminate Hamas militants disregards the fact that it is targeting a largely defenceless population, already pushed to the brink, in an area where buildings and homes are reduced to rubble.”
The secretary pointed to recent aerial images showing Gaza largely leveled and observed that “the international community is, unfortunately, powerless and that the countries truly capable of exerting influence have so far failed to act to stop the ongoing massacre.”
The cardinal quoted Pope Leo, who said in July: “I renew my appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and to respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population.”
“These are words,” Cardinal Parolin said, “that are still waiting to be welcomed and understood.”
The cardinal called on the international community to do “much more than what it is doing now, arguing that simply stating “what is happening is unacceptable” is “not enough.”
“We must seriously ask ourselves about the legitimacy, for example, of continuing to supply weapons that are being used against civilians,” he said. “Sadly, as we have seen, the United Nations has not been able to stop what is happening. But there are international actors that could, and should, do more to end this tragedy, and we must find a way to give the United Nations a more effective role in ending the many fratricidal wars ongoing around the world.”
Asked about Trump’s proposed plan to end the war, Cardinal Parolin said any plan “that includes the Palestinian people in decisions about their own future, and helps put an end to this slaughter — releasing hostages and halting the daily killing of hundreds of people — is to be welcomed and supported.” He added that Pope Leo “has expressed the hope that the parties will accept the plan and that a genuine peace process can finally begin.”
Cardinal Parolin also spoke favorably of protests against Netanyahu among Israeli citizens. While acknowledging the presence of some “extremist” bad actors, the secretary said, “I am positively impressed by the turnout in demonstrations and the commitment of many young people. It shows we are not condemned to indifference.”
Besides taking civic action, Cardinal Parolin also recommended prayer, pointing to Pope Leo’s invitation for Catholics worldwide to pray a daily Rosary for peace throughout the month of October.
“But I also want to stress that Christian faith is either incarnate, or it is not faith at all,” the secretary said. “We follow a God who became Man, took on our humanity, and showed us that we cannot be indifferent to what happens around us, even what is far from us. That is why prayer is never enough — but neither is concrete action, the awakening of conscience, peace initiatives, awareness-raising, even if it means appearing ‘out of touch’ or taking risks.”
“There is a silent majority, including many young people, that refuses to surrender to this inhumanity,” he said. “They too are called to pray. To think that our role as Christians is only to shut ourselves away in sacristies — I find that deeply mistaken. Prayer must also lead to action, to witness, to concrete choices.”
Cardinal Parolin, speaking somewhat more formally as the Holy See’s Secretary of State, called for “negotiation,” pointing out that the Church’s position is based in “realism.”
The “alternative to diplomacy is endless war, the abyss of hatred and the self-destruction of the world,” he said. “We must cry out forcefully: let us stop before it is too late. And we must act, do everything possible so that it is not too late. Everything possible.”
Cardinal Parolin also reiterated the Holy See’s official recognition, dating to 2015, of the State of Palestine. The Holy See’s formal agreement with Palestine “supports a Palestinian State that is independent, sovereign, democratic, and viable, encompassing the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” he explained. “That agreement envisions this State not as opposed to others, but capable of living side by side with its neighbors in peace and security.”
While most of the international community now agrees with the Vatican and recognizes the Palestinian state, “Israeli declarations and decisions are moving in the opposite direction — that is, aiming to prevent the possible birth of a real Palestinian State once and for all,” Cardinal Parolin pointed out, despite the fact that “the creation of a Palestinian State … seems even more valid today in light of the events of the last two years.”
Cardinal Parolin also spoke up for the Christians residing in Gaza, who have “come under attack.”
As CatholicVote reported at the time, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz announced Oct. 1 that Israel Defense Forces had surrounded Gaza, and threatened to treat all who remained there as “terrorists and terror supporters.” The threat came after local Christian clergy and religious had publicly stated their intention to stay and care for the elderly and wounded.
“I am moved by the thought of these people who are determined to stay, who pray daily for peace and for the victims,” Cardinal Parolin said.
“We try to stay close to them in every way, through the efforts of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Caritas. We are grateful to the governments and institutions working to get aid through and to allow the severely wounded to receive care.”
“The role of Christians in the Middle East has been — and remains — fundamental,” he concluded, “even as their numbers dwindle. I want to stress that they fully share in the fate of the tormented Palestinian people, and suffer with them.”
Readers can find the full interview with Cardinal Parolin here.