Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), encouraged the faithful in the face of the crisis of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine,the believers are called to share the beauty of human life inhabited by the Spirit of the Lord ”. He said in his inaugural address of the work of the spring session of the Permanent Episcopal Council.
“We meet while at the gates of Europe a devastating war sows terror, death and destruction. Our thoughts are directed to the victims, their loved ones and all those who have been forced to leave their homes in search of safety: let us join our voice to that of the Holy Father”, asked the Cardinal.
He then explained that “the serious international crisis that we are experiencing due to the conflict in Ukraine evokes in Europe the ghost of a past that was believed to be definitively isolated”.
“Instead, the bombs, the destruction, the Ukrainian and Russian deaths, the devastation of these last weeks have confronted us with a danger, a threat, always lurking,” lamented the CIS president.
The Cardinal also assured that the number of displaced people will increase over time and assured that “in the near future if hostilities do not cease, there will be the arrival of people even more fragile and poorer than those who have already managed to escape.”
“Therefore – continued the Cardinal – it is unthinkable that border countries can sustain this humanitarian effort on their own. It will be necessary for the European Union to decide to launch a real plan for the redistribution of Ukrainian citizens in the different Member States”.
Cardinal Bassetti explained that in the next few days humanitarian flights from Warsaw will arrive in Italy with Ukrainian citizens who will be welcomed by Caritas.