Archbishop Gallagher: The Holy See pursues a diplomacy that believes in peace

The sun was shining in Moscow on Friday in the early afternoon when the person responsible for the Holy See’s diplomacy boarded the flight that took him back to Rome, via Istanbul, to return to the Vatican late at night. It was a long and rather cumbersome journey. The suspension of direct connections between Russia and the countries of the European Union, in fact, restricts the options for reaching Moscow and obliges the few scheduled flights to make a long detour around Europe, which from Istanbul leads to crossing the Balkans, skirting the Ukrainian borders and, finally, crossing the skies of Belarus. It took at least twelve hours, between flights and stopovers, for a journey that before 2022 required about four hours of flying.

“It was a long journey,” confirms Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, “but this too takes on a symbolic dimension – before 2022, one reached Moscow in a few hours, whereas today the road has become longer. This journey is indicative of the desire for dialogue that the Holy See wants to pursue. A dialogue that we have been conducting for years, both through the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the Holy See and through the work of the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Giovanni d’Aniello in Moscow. This underscores the commitment and the importance that we have attributed to this journey, which was undertaken on behalf of the Holy See and with the blessing of the Pope.”Yes, it is a difficult dialogue, because the longer the war continues, the more difficult it will be to restore relations: there are many victims, many open wounds. But we know very well that, historically, all conflicts, all wars end with a negotiation, with an agreement, and then one begins to restore relations between the former belligerents. In this sense, diplomacy offers and promises a possible solution. This is also what we, as a Church, have the responsibility and the duty to proclaim. We went to Moscow to speak of peace, to encourage the troubled souls because of the war, and to say: have courage, embrace the path of peace, have the hope of believing in a better day. And I believe that essentially this was our message.