Stop the carnage

Our Editorial Director reflects on Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin's remarks about the 30,000 people who have died in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

By Andrea Tornielli

Immediately after the massacre perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, against peaceful Israeli families, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin described it as “inhuman.” He emphasized the priority of freeing hostages and also spoke about Israel's right to defence while indicating the necessary parameter of proportionality.

Dialoguing with journalists on Tuesday, February 13, at the end of an event with Italian authorities, Parolin used unequivocal words about what is happening in Gaza. He repeated the "clear and unequivocal condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism"; at the same time, he reiterated the "request that Israel's right to defence, which has been invoked to justify this operation, be proportional, and certainly with 30 thousand deaths, it is not." The cardinal added, "I believe we are all outraged by what is happening, by this carnage, but we must have the courage to move forward and not lose hope." His invitation is not to succumb to despair, to the alleged inevitability of a spiral of violence that can never bring peace but risks generating new hatred.

In an interview by the Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”, the writer and poet Edith Bruck - who, in the spring of 1944, at the age of 13, was captured in the Hungarian ghetto of Sátoraljaújhely and deported to Auschwitz - expressed similar positions. She directed severe criticism towards the current Israeli Prime Minister, stating that "he has harmed the Jews of the diaspora because he has revived anti-Semitism, which has never disappeared and has now increased." Bruck also expressed her belief that terrorists will never be eliminated with this policy.

The words of both the cardinal and the Jewish poet stem from a realistic view of the ongoing tragedy. The Holy See is always on the side of the victims. Thus, it was for the Israelis massacred at home in the kibbutz as they were about to celebrate the feast of Simchat Torah and for the hostages torn from their families, as it is for the innocent civilians - one-third of whom are children - killed by bombings in Gaza. No one can define what is happening in the Strip as "collateral damage" in the fight against terrorism. The right to defence, Israel's right to bring the perpetrators of the October massacre to justice, cannot justify this carnage.

During the Angelus on December 17, after the killing of two Christian women who had sought refuge in the Gaza parish, Pope Francis said, "Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and gunfire... Some say, 'It's terrorism, it's war.' Yes, it's war, it's terrorism. That's why Scripture states, 'God brings wars to an end... He breaks the bow and splinters the spear' (cf. Ps 46:9). Let us pray to the Lord for peace." At the beginning of Lent, as the macabre toll of innocent victims increases, this call becomes even more urgent, to call for the weapons to be silenced before it is too late for our world on the brink of the abyss.