The Secretary of State says that “the majority of Muslims refuse those brutal and inhuman methods. Let us hope that the Islamic world speaks up against them. The international community should be present in the country. The Church has not been silent”

Cardinal Parolin: “The events in Iraq are not a clash between Islam and Christianity”

The Secretary of State says that “the majority of Muslims refuse those brutal and inhuman methods. Let us hope that the Islamic world speaks up against them. The international community should be present in the country. The Church has not been silent”

The events in Iraq “are not a clash between Islam and Christianity”, says Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who answered some questions on the international crisis for Vatican Insider last night, after celebrating Mass for the 100th anniversary of the death of Saint Pius X. Less than a week ago, during the press conference on the flight back from Korea, Pope Francis explained that it is legitimate to “stop the unjust aggressor”, specifying, however, that “to stop” does not mean “to bomb”, and that the decision about how to intervene must be taken by the international community through the United Nations, rather than by a single country.

Your Eminence, what is your view on the events in Iraq?

“The Pope has already spoken up and I have no comment on his words. I think the situation is a source of great worry for Christians and for all the other minorities. We sincerely hope that the displaced can go back to their villages and that a new Iraq can be built through political inclusion, in which all minorities have a part to play and can contribute to the rebuilding of the country”.

Do you wish for an upsurge of conscience within the international community?

“The international community must definitely intervene. It must intervene by being present in this situation. It is impossible for a country in the conditions Iraq is in now to resolve its problems on its own.”

There are people who report on the events in Iraq as a clash between Christianity and Islam. Is this a correct view or is it an oversimplification?

“I believe it is an oversimplification. Recently, I have been reading some reports from the nuncio in Syria that explained how many Muslims are suffering for these events and are supportive of Christians. So this is definitely not a clash between Islam and Christianity. There are people within Islam, and I believe that they are the majority, who refuse these brutal and inhuman methods. Unfortunately, some factions make them their own but I believe that they are not condoned by most of the other Muslims. We hope that they will also speak up against this, to make a clear distinction between what can and what cannot be done, we hope that the Muslim world speaks up”.

There are those who accuse the Holy See of not intervening, of being too silent on the face of the tragedies in Iraq…

“Shouting is not always the way to resolve problems. There are other ways, other methods. Anyway, the Pope has spoken up many times, It is not fair to say that the Church has been too silent. And we are also trying to give concrete help to solve these problems”.

Andrea Tornielli, Vatican Insider