U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio mentioned Saturday that the Vatican may very well be a venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks, taking on the Holy See’s longstanding supply after Pope Leo XIV vowed to personally make “each effort” to assist finish the struggle.
Chatting with reporters in Rome earlier than assembly with Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Vatican level man on Ukraine, Rubio mentioned that he can be discussing potential methods the Vatican may assist, “the standing of the talks, the updates after yesterday (Friday) and the trail ahead.”
Requested if the Vatican may very well be a peace dealer, Rubio replied: “I wouldn’t name it dealer, nevertheless it’s definitely — I believe it’s a spot that either side can be snug going.”
“So we’ll discuss all of that and clearly all the time grateful to the Vatican for his or her willingness to play this constructive and optimistic position,” he mentioned on the U.S. Embassy in Rome.
The Vatican has a practice of diplomatic neutrality and had lengthy provided its providers to attempt to assist facilitate talks, however discovered itself sidelined through the all-out struggle, which started on Feb. 24, 2022.
Pope Francis, who typically angered either side together with his feedback, had entrusted Zuppi with a mandate to attempt to discover paths of peace. However the mandate appeared to slender to assist facilitate the return of Ukrainian kids taken by Russia, and the Holy See additionally was in a position to mediate some prisoner exchanges.
Leo, who was elected historical past’s first American pope on Might 8, took up Francis’ name for peace in Ukraine in his first Sunday midday blessing as pope. He appealed for all sides to do no matter attainable to achieve “an genuine, simply and lasting peace.”
Leo, who as a bishop in Peru had known as Russia’s struggle an “imperialist invasion,” vowed this week personally to “make each effort in order that this peace could prevail.”
In a speech to japanese ceremony Catholics, together with the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, Leo begged warring sides to satisfy and negotiate.
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“The Holy See is all the time prepared to assist convey enemies collectively, nose to nose, to speak to 1 one other, in order that peoples in every single place could as soon as extra discover hope and get well the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace,” he mentioned.
The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, repeated the Vatican’s supply to function a venue for direct talks, saying the failure of negotiations in Istanbul to achieve a ceasefire this week was “tragic.”
“We had hoped it may begin a course of, sluggish however optimistic, towards a peaceable resolution to the battle,” Parolin mentioned on the sidelines of a convention. “However as a substitute we’re again to the start.”
Requested concretely what such a suggestion would entail, Parolin mentioned that the Vatican may function a venue for a direct assembly between the 2 sides.
“One would intention to reach at this, that at the very least they discuss. We’ll see what occurs. It’s a suggestion of a spot,” he mentioned.
“We’ve got all the time mentioned, repeated to the 2 sides that we can be found to you, with all of the discretion wanted,” Parolin mentioned.
The Vatican scored what was maybe its best diplomatic achievement of the Francis hold forth when it facilitated the talks between the USA and Cuba in 2014 that resulted within the resumption of diplomatic relations.
The Holy See has additionally typically hosted far much less secret diplomatic initiatives, comparable to when it introduced collectively the rival leaders of South Sudan in 2019. The encounter was made well-known by the picture of Francis bending right down to kiss their ft to beg them to make peace.
Maybe the Holy See’s most important diplomatic initiative got here through the peak of the Cuban missile disaster when, within the fall of 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered a secret deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba that had been quickly detected by U.S. spy planes.
Because the Kennedy administration thought-about its response, with the specter of nuclear struggle looming, Pope John XXIII pleaded for peace in a public radio handle, in a speech to Vatican ambassadors and in addition wrote privately to Kennedy and Khruschev, interesting to their love of their folks to face down.
Many historians have credited John XXIII’s appeals with serving to either side step again from the brink of nuclear struggle.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
