The apostolic nuncio to Ukraine said that recent events regarding Ukraine have shown that the only true weapon that can bring peace is prayer.
“As papal nuncio, I would underscore the following experience: This terrible war is confirming once again that it is impossible to rely on human justice, on international order, or on the international community, because at the end of the day, those who have more military power try to command," Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas told OSV News March 19.
"I can really rely only on God," he said. "In this sense, I keep inviting also the faithful, especially our fellow Catholic faithful, to consider prayer and repentance as the most important 'weapons' in building peace."
Uncertainty has loomed over the war in Ukraine following the public clash between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House in late February.
While Trump has advocated for peace and an end to the conflict, his openness toward Russia has caused concerns globally.
Although Russia has agreed to cease military operations against Ukraine's energy infrastructure during a recent call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader stopped short of agreeing to a full ceasefire.
A day after his call with Putin, Trump and Zelenskyy held an hourlong phone conversation in which, according to a White House statement, Trump "fully briefed" Zelenskyy on his call to Putin "and the key issues discussed." The two leaders "agreed on a partial ceasefire," it said.
Speaking to OSV News via email, Archbishop Kulbokas said that "humanly speaking it gives no encouragement hearing about all those drastic ups and downs on the international arena regarding Ukraine."
The papal nuncio said that although "it is too early to say" whether Trump's initiative will "bear any fruit," the Holy See has always maintained that "at least we should try ways for de-escalation."
"The Holy See has always insisted on the necessity of trying, again and again, ways to end the war through dialogue and diplomatic means," Archbishop Kulbokas said. "Is it easy to engage in dialogue, particularly in trying to stop this war? By no means! But the Holy See insists that the countries at war, and also the eventual intermediaries, should try at least to diminish the intensity of the war in order to gradually increase conditions for more constructive talks."
Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for over a month at Rome's Gemelli Hospital, has continued to push for peace while expressing concerns over recent news that European leaders plan to increase spending on re-armaments in the wake of Trump's threats to rollback its support for the war.
In a March 14 letter addressed to the editor-in-chief of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, the pope reiterated his belief that in the moment of illness, "war appears even more absurd" and emphasized the need to "disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth" in order to heal divisions.
"While war only devastates communities and the environment, without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organizations are in need of new vitality and credibility. Religions, moreover, can draw from the spirituality of peoples to rekindle the desire for fraternity and justice, the hope for peace," the pope wrote.
Archbishop Kulbokas told OSV News that what he believed was "particularly precious" in the pope's message was that his sentiments came "from the bottom of his heart and from his experience of vulnerability through illness."
"These words were published in the Corriere della Sera, but I read them as if they were sent to me personally," the archbishop said. "With his letter, Pope Francis didn't touch at all the politics, and I would say that he didn't even address, so to speak, the 'human strategies of war,' but something much more profound and very urgent."
The papal nuncio said that "technically speaking," the pope was not saying that weapons, such as anti-missile, anti-drone or anti-bombardment defense, were wrong since those weapons have "one and only purpose: to protect lives and infrastructure, without any intent to attack anyone."
Instead, he explained, the pope's words speak to the "overall mentality that reigns in the world" that is "used to relying on weapons, on something else, but not on God and not even on human peace."
"In this, humankind is more foolish than the animals!" the archbishop said. "We are used to facing all the challenges with superficiality, and only when war is already at our doors, we start thinking, and in that moment, the only solution that comes to our minds is that of weapons and more weapons. Pope Francis insists that humankind should invest much more in serious thinking, cooperation, and all that facilitates creative initiatives for peace."
Among the concerns of the international community regarding Trump's more conciliatory tone toward Putin is the possibility of U.S. pressure on Ukraine to cede territories gained by Russia in the conflict, including the annexed provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
In an interview with the Italian daily Il Foglio March 18, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, spoke out against ceding territory to Russia as part of peace negotiations, arguing that "if evil is not punished, sooner or later it will revive with even more vigor and even more dramatic consequences."
Major Archbishop Shevchuk also noted that claims made by Russian propaganda and repeated in the West were troubling not only for Ukrainians but for "the future of humanity."
Archbishop Kulbokas said that while the Holy See "considers that it is important to explore all possible avenues for dialogue," neither the Vatican nor Archbishop Shevchuk have forgotten "that it would be an illusion to build peace without respect for international law and for the population."
"This is how I interpret His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk," the archbishop said.
Noting the March 18-20 meeting of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops' conference, Archbishop Kulbokas told OSV News that the bishops have all expressed their trust in God in this time and cling to the hope "that God's ways are often different from people's ways."
"We trust and we hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, we know that the church's primary vocation is to proclaim the Gospel, love, repentance, truth, pardon, and peace because, even when humankind fails, God remains merciful to us, and of course for Him, peace is possible even in such difficult times," he said.
