Ukraine: Cardinal Parolin appeals for immediate peace talks

Cardinal Parolin © Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia

Source: Vatican News

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State invoked the intercession of St Rita of Cascia, one of the patron saint of hopeless causes to put an end to the violence in Ukraine. In his homily at a special Mass for her feast day in her home town, Cascia, the Cardinal said: "In this land of faith and peace, here in Umbria, I hope that negotiations will begin as soon as possible and that we can finally reach the much needed peace."

Cardinal Parolin recalled St Rita as the "saint of the impossible and the advocate of desperate cases", and entrusted to her the prayers for a solution to the conflict in Ukraine.

Cardinal Parolin said St Rita is a symbol of the "virtue of forgiveness, peace, and charity," and to her we give homage and place in her hands our human weakness. But to her intercession, the Cardinal Parolin said: "I entrust the many intentions of the Holy Father Francis, who does not cease to make his voice heard daily so that the useless spiral of death in Ukraine may be broken as soon as possible".

Violence is never the answer and as the life events of the humble woman of Roccaporena teach us, it "never resolves conflicts but only increases their dramatic consequences". He concluded: "we experience this every day and I wonder why we cannot see from history and current events that using violence only worsen problems."

Read more about St Rita of Cascia: www.indcatholicnews.com/saint/152