Vatican criticizes Europe's armaments plans: Where is peace?

The planned military armament in Europe causes considerable criticism from the Vatican. The Pope is currently hardly audible, but the official statements of the Vatican media are becoming more important due to its absence. In a sharp editorial in the VatiChanzeung "Osservatore Romano" and on the portal "Vatican News", the announcement to invest 800 billion euros in weapons will be questioned. Andrea Tornielli, who is responsible for the Vatican media content, describes the European military plans as an expression of inability to create creative diplomatic initiatives. The EU seems almost helpless by only delivering weapons to Ukraine without finding alternative ways for negotiations to end the bloody conflict. Especially at a moment when the arms expenditure of the EU already exceeds that of the Russian Federation, the question of the meaningfulness of such a armament, as well as the reporting of kathpress.at underline.

In a time when the Third World War was perceived as a creeping threat, the Holy Stuhl advocates distance from the logic of the deterrent. Instead of putting the money in weapon systems, the Vatican appeals to the international community to develop creative approaches to peace. Pope Francis, whose words can also be found in the current comments, sees massive armaments production a growing risk that could trigger an uncontrollable conflict, as it Vaticannews.va describes. The creation of a "world fund" to combat hunger and to promote sustainable development is considered urgently necessary instead of filling the arsenals with even more weapons. The call for negotiations and the creation of peace is therefore in stark contrast to the impending continuation of a armaments.