UGCC<\/a> press service.<\/p>\nThe bishops expressed their deep concern about the current situation: \u201cThe world seems to be regressing into a dangerous dynamic, reminiscent of some of the darkest hours of humankind which were meant to remain in history books. The polarisation of the international community, fuelled by a renewed logic of competition between the great powers, along with eroding trust in multilateral cooperation frameworks, leaves open the scenario of an uncontrollable escalation with catastrophic consequences for the whole of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Noting their concern about Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine and the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in the Caucasus, the bishops said \u201csuch international polarisation and regional instabilities also have repercussions for European societies, stirring up fears, weakening dialogue and threatening social cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDangerous phenomena have been gaining ground in several European \u00a0countries, such as anti-Semitism, radicalisation and xenophobia, often fuelled by a \u00a0systematic spread of disinformation and resulting in violent extremism and terrorism, \u00a0which we strongly condemn in all their forms and expressions,\u201d the declaration reads.<\/p>\n
The bishops call upon the leaders of the EU, as well as all European citizens, to rediscover and embrace the two great dreams of Europe\u2019s founding fathers: unity and peace.<\/p>\n
They reiterate that peace is more than the absence of war and violence. \u00a0Constructing peace also requires coherent efforts aimed at promoting human dignity, justice, integral human development and the care of Creation, the declaration reads.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly encourage political representatives of our Union to play an active role in shaping and offering to the continent and to the world a renewed vision for stability, justice and peace. While not giving in to a logic of war, the European Union should open up new processes of dialogue and develop a coherent diplomacy of peace. In view of becoming a true bridge and peacemaker in its neighbourhood and in the \u00a0world, the EU should also show leadership in rebuilding a global architecture of \u00a0peace, rooted in effective multilateralism and respect for international law, including \u00a0sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of other States,\u201d the bishops stated.<\/p>\n
They also stressed that coherent implementation of global arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament agreements should be equally prioritised in view of fostering mutual trust as a pillar of international stability.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuilding lasting peace requires both architects and artisans, and thus we are all called to contribute to this common task, promoting a culture of encounter, solidarity and peace,\u201d the declaration concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bishops of the European Union, gathered in Brussels at the autumn Plenary Assembly of the Commission of the Bishops\u2019 Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), on November 10, 2023, adopted a statement for peace in the context of a serious deterioration in international security. The chief guest of the Plenary Assembly was His Beatitude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":179029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-179076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world-en"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-2023-11-12T091848.071.jpg?fit=770%2C433&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179077,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179076\/revisions\/179077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}