The president of the Italian Episcopal Conference expressed prayerful solidarity in a letter to the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic churches in the Middle East.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna lamented the “exacerbation of violence that continues to cause suffering, wounds and mourning, weighing especially on the most fragile: families, children, the elderly, the sick, people forced to leave their homes or to live in daily uncertainty.”
“The cry of those who suffer challenges everyone’s conscience and cannot be ignored,” Cardinal Zuppi continued. “War is not and can never be the answer.”
The bishops’ conference released a summary of Cardinal Zuppi’s letter today, ahead of the Italian bishops’ day of prayer and fasting for peace.