Vatican diplomat calls for international cooperation to address ‘appalling’ refugee crisis
June 18, 2025
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CWN Editor's Note: Addressing a UN meeting, a Vatican diplomat said on June 17 that “the appalling scale of forced displacement, which reached over 122 million at the end of April 2025, provides yet another unequivocal and dramatic indicator of the violence, persecution and conflicts that plague our times.”
Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, praised “those countries that assist and host the forcibly displaced” and called for international cooperation, solidarity, and humanitarian assistance. He added that “renewed priority must be given to addressing the root causes of displacement.”
Archbishop Balestrero took issue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for including the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in a document on refugee protection. Such “new and confusing categories,” the prelate warned, “risk polarizing discussions and making the fundamental goal of protection dependent on the vagueness of certain terms.”
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