The Vatican’s foreign minister has told Russian officials the bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine must end – and that it can’t be resolved through military means.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, in Moscow this week for a series of meetings, appeared Tuesday with his counterpart, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, and spoke with reporters in the Russian capital.
“The position of the Holy See is clear,” Gallagher said, “the conflict cannot be resolved by military means” and “it is essential to create the conditions for a political and diplomatic process.”
“To be clear,” Gallagher said, “this war must end.”
Gallagher also reiterated Pope Leo XIV’s appeal to the two countries to end the conflict and instead open “genuine negotiations” with the international community.
“It is urgent and necessary to end the hostilities and plan future relations so as not to remain prisoners of the wrongs of the past,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher also called on both sides to respect international and humanitarian law, in particular regarding infrastructure, prisoners of war, civilians, and the wounded.
“Any concrete result in the humanitarian sphere will help alleviate suffering and make it possible to restore a minimum level of trust between the parties to the conflict,” the prelate said.
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Lavrov described the meeting with Gallagher as “very useful” and agreed with Gallagher that cooperation with the Holy See should be increased, in particular in regards to humanitarian issues.
On Saturday, Lavrov rejected the idea of negotiating with Western countries and said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his allies were “being weaponized and incited against Russia.”
“All Western countries that declared a war on us with the hands and bodies of the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv have hoped for many years that we will approach them to negotiate,” he said. “We will not. There is no one to negotiate with in today’s Europe.”
On Tuesday evening, Gallagher met with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
On Wednesday, Gallagher will meet Yuri Ushakov, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation for Foreign Policy.
On Thursday, Gallagher will have the opportunity to meet the Catholic community in Moscow. There are different estimates for the number of Catholics in Russia, but all of them are significantly under 1 million.
Leo’s appeals
Earlier this month, Pope Leo XIV renewed his appeal for an end to the conflict, saying he stands “with the families of the victims, the injured, and all those suffering,” and called on belligerents to respect “humanitarian law and for both sides to cease attacks on civilian targets.”
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“War only begets more war and causes enormous suffering,” the pontiff said.
“It is time to halt the spiral of violence,” the pope said, “and make room for diplomacy and dialogue to pave the way for peace.”
In an interview with Crux Now last year, the pontiff noted the “great efforts” the Vatican’s institutional diplomats have made “to maintain a position that, as difficult as it might be, [is not] one side or the other, but truly neutral.”
The Holy See has also made efforts to approach the belligerents, but Leo acknowledged the difficulties and limits of Holy See diplomacy.
“I’d make a distinction in terms of the voice of the Holy See in advocating for peace and a role as mediator, which I think is very different and is not as realistic as the first one,” he said.
“I think that people have heard the different appeals I’ve made, Leo said, “in terms of raising my voice, the voice of Christians, and the people of goodwill, saying that peace is the only answer.”
“To think of the Vatican as a mediator,” however, “even the couple of times that we have offered to host meetings of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, either in the Vatican or some other church property,” is another matter, he said.
“I’m very well aware of what the implications of that are,” Leo said.
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