Pope Francis and Vatican diplomats are actively mobilising their efforts to address ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Holy Land. The Pope has made it clear that pursuing peace is a top priority. Meanwhile, Vatican officials are working tirelessly to promote peace through various channels. “I encourage faithful to take only one side in this Read more
The Holy See’s foreign minister addressed the UN General Assembly, calling for a halt to the deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems. Archbishop Paul Gallagher joined a chorus of concerns raised by various speakers regarding artificial intelligence (AI). “It is imperative to ensure adequate, meaningful and consistent human oversight of weapon systems,” Gallagher said. “Only Read more
In an address to the 66th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States called for a world without nuclear weapons. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s ‘foreign minister’ said, “The Holy See has no doubt that a world free from nuclear weapons is both necessary and possible”. Read more
In an interview with the Polish Catholic news agency KAI, the president of Poland’s Catholic bishops’ conference has said that the Vatican’s approach to Russia is “naive and utopian”. Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, 72, was asked about his meeting with Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, following a May 17-20 visit to Read more
The Vatican’s equivalent of “foreign minister” has made a two-day visit to Moscow, a sign of the Holy See’s ongoing efforts to improve Vatican-Russia relations. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, arrived on Monday in the Russian capital, where he held meetings with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Read more
Ahead of the Vatican’s day of prayer for Lebanon on July 1, a senior Vatican official has expressed concern that the potential collapse of the country could jeopardize the Christian presence in the Middle East. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister, said June 25 that he believes that the Holy See Read more
The Vatican has intervened with the Italian state in a proposed “anti-homophobia” law, saying that the legislation violates freedoms of the Catholic Church in Italy. Local media have called the Vatican’s intervention in Italian law “unprecedented” in the history of the relationship between the two states. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, a Read more
Belarus has renewed its 2016 invitation to Pope Francis to visit the country. Vladimir Makei, the Belarus Minister of Foreign Affairs, reiterated the invitation during a meeting with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, who is the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States. Makei told Gallagher, who was visiting Belarus, that the invitation remained open despite tensions Read more
Vatican-China diplomatic relations seem to be warming up, with their foreign ministers meeting for the first time in 50 years. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for Relations with States, and the foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China and counsellor of state, Wang Yi, met in Germany last Friday. They were both attending the Read more
Intolerance of Christians is the ‘last acceptable prejudice’, says , the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Quoting Pope Francis, Gallagher says there’s a tendency to reduce religions “to the quiet obscurity of the individual’s conscience or to relegate them to the enclosed precincts of churches, synagogues or mosques.” Read more