Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine tells how the Church can prevent war

He said that in order to promote dialogue, political leaders must step over partial interests and focus their eyes on universal brotherhood. He recalls that in situations such as the current one, the mission of the Church is to "enlighten the dialogue by adding an element of spiritual care for the other," that is, to take care of the salvation of all.

Assessing the current situation in Ukraine, when there is a threat of Russian invasion, the nuncio said: "there is fear, there is a lot of tension, but, nevertheless, people are holding up quite well."

"The tension is great because it seems to smell like war, which undoubtedly worries everyone: it worries those who have children, the elderly, pregnant women, those who have certain problems... we can talk about a lot of tension. But here the authorities are trying to calm the population down. And, in my opinion, this also applies to the mission of the Catholic Church, as well as, in general, churches and religious communities, to inspire at least relative calm even in emergency situations, as now," says the nuncio.

According to him, the prayer for peace these days was very fervent, because "prayer has a great power to change hearts, change history, the course of history."

In a situation where politicians cannot conduct a Dormition Dialogue, an important role is assigned to the Church:

"We call on political leaders to step over partial interests and focus their eyes on universal brotherhood, the brotherhood of all. ... When we pray for peace, we also pray for the courage of politicians. The mission of the Church is to look at everyone as brothers, and this is the joy of the church: this openness is also there. ... When I personally pray for peace, I know very well that at any moment our Lord Jesus is able to enlighten this or that politician, this or that military man, and diametrically change the decision. For this requires very little, it is enough to change a partial vision to an open vision, an open vision to another, to a brother or sister, and then decisions will change. Therefore, even if the situation is very tense, very difficult in a human way, however, for the church this is a way to rediscover the beauty of its inherent mission."