On Monday, August 13, 2024, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's Secretary of State, had a telephone conversation with Masoud Pezeshkian, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

In a communication to journalists, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, noted that Cardinal Parolin congratulated the new President on the start of his term of office, saying they discussed issues of common interest.

Cardinal Parolin expressed the Holy See's deep concern over what is happening in the Middle East, reiterating the need to avoid, in any way possible, the widening of the very serious conflict under way and preferring instead every effort for dialogue, negotiation and peace.

Pope Francis has made regular appeals for dialogue, peace and every effort to help the suffering.

At the conclusion of last Wednesday's General Audience, the Pope said he is following the situation in the Middle East with great concern, and he reiterated his appeal to all the parties involved that the conflict may not spread.

"May there be an immediate ceasefire on all fronts, starting with Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious and unsustainable," he said, offering his prayers "that the sincere search for peace will extinguish strife, love will overcome hatred and vengeance will be disarmed by forgiveness."

Cardinal Parolin: 'War benefits no one'

At his weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis restated his impassioned plea for world peace, referring especially to Ukraine, the Middle East, Sudan, and Myanmar.

His appeal was echoed in Assisi, where Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin presided at a solemn concelebration for the day’s feast of Saint Clare, in the basilica dedicated to her.

“From Assisi, I want to launch a strong appeal for peace throughout the world,“ he said. “As the Holy Father has reiterated several times, war is a defeat for everyone and benefits no one.”

Attending the celebration were Bishop Domenico Sorrentino of Assisi, the Poor Clares, the Franciscans, religious men and women, civil and military authorities and thousands of faithful.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, the Vatican Secretary of State, who went on a mission to Ukraine in July visiting Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv, commented on the recent incursions of the⁣ Ukrainian army in the western Russian border region of Kursk, expressing concern that that the offensive could further escalate the war.

“These are very worrying developments, because it means opening new fronts,” he said. “In this sense, the chances for peace could become increasingly distant.”

Cardinal Parolin also spoke about war in his homily, in which he underlined the need for love "in a world increasingly lacking in love and which at the same time hungers for love.”

Continuing his reflection, Cardinal Parolin pointed to St. Clare’s radical choice of poverty, as an example for our consumeristic society, marked by the “unbridled pursuit of satisfaction of needs induced by advertising and social emulation.”

This way of life, he remarked, inevitably results “in waste of economic resources, pollution, and hedonism, which identifies pleasure as the supreme good and the exclusive purpose of life."

Cardinal Parolin underscored this point when speaking with journalists before the liturgy, saying we should learn today to detach ourselves of material goods but, most importantly, “of our selfishness, our personal convictions and pretensions to open up to others with a fraternal and peaceful approach as St. Claire and St. Francis did.”