Cardinal Parolin condemns killing of civilians, decries preventive war
March 05, 2026
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CWN Editor's Note: Commenting on the Iran war, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, condemned the killing of civilians, decried the concept of preventive war, and called for respect for international law and multilateral diplomacy.
“The Holy See forcefully reiterates its condemnation of every form of involvement of civilians and civilian structures—such as homes, schools, hospitals, and places of worship—in military operations, and asks that the principle of the inviolability of human dignity and the sacredness of life always be protected,” Cardinal Parolin said in an interview with Vatican News.
“If states were to be recognized as having a right to ‘preventive war,’ according to their own criteria and without a supranational legal framework, the whole world would risk being set ablaze,” he added. “This erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force, with the conviction that peace can arise only after the enemy has been annihilated.”
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