Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“I believe the important thing would be to eliminate tensions, to discuss the controversial points, but without entering into polemics and without fueling tensions,” the Secretary of State of His Holiness added.

Cardinal Parolin also spoke about respect for international law, the “responsible use of the press,” Venezuela, Iran, the conflict in the Holy Land, and President Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza.

In a papal message to the Fédération des Médias Catholiques (Federation of Catholic Media), Cardinal Pietro Parolin encouraged media professionals to be voices of reconciliation in a polarized world.

“One cannot remain indifferent to pain, to suffering—we must act,” he said, “because the risk, as Pope Leo says, is that of the ‘globalization of impotence,’ even more serious than the globalization of indifference.”

Vatican News reported that “the Ukrainian people now live in darkness, with temperatures well below zero, without heating, without electricity, because of intense Russian raids on the capital, Kyiv.”

Pope Leo XIV received Masoud Barzani, the former president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, which provided hospitality to an estimated 100,000 Iraqi Christians who fled the advance of the Islamic State in 2014.

At the conclusion of his January 21 general audience, Pope Leo XIV lamented that “war is back in fashion.”

Reviving a custom discontinued by Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV was presented with two lambs on the memorial of St. Agnes (video).

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV emphasized that Jesus Christ reveals God the Father.