Rome, Italy, Oct 26, 2023 / 07:25 am
Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, has called Hamas “the worst enemy of the Palestinian people.”
“We need a solution that guarantees the rights of the two sides; we really need an authoritative Palestinian leadership,” the bishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference said at the sidelines of a conference in northern Italy on Oct. 26.
According to a local Italian television station, Telenord, the cardinal said the root causes of the conflict in Israel and Palestine need to be solved: “There’s to be clarity, firmness, and no kind of indulgence toward violence, and then you have to understand the causes to resolve it.”
He said he appreciates Pope Francis’ references to a third world war being fought “in pieces,” in which stability is increasingly threatened. “Conflicts affect you even if they tend to seem to have nothing to do with you.”