Cardinal Parolin: Pope’s visit to France to shine light on life, peace, Europe

By Massimiliano Menichetti

There is great anticipation for Leo’s fifth international Apostolic Journey, during which he will confirm French believers in the faith and bring the light of Christ, which is capable of renewing every heart. He will speak to a multicultural, secular and secularized society, in which the number of young adult catechumens is growing. He will address central issues such as the protection of life, the building of peace, the challenges posed by artificial intelligence, and Europe’s identity.

The Pope looks to France as a country called to draw upon its cultural, humanistic and diplomatic tradition in order to rediscover and strengthen its understanding of the human person and his or her relationship with the Creator. The challenge is also to reinvigorate the Christian roots of the Old Continent, which affirm the sacredness of life and call for the building of bridges and paths of dialogue in the direction of multilateralism, which is today greatly weakened. For Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the hope is that “this journey may give rise to renewed dynamism: a great open workshop of thought and action in which believers and non-believers can walk and work together.”

Your Eminence, the motto chosen for the Pope’s upcoming Apostolic Journey is: “That the world may have life.” What message is it intended to convey concretely from France?

When we think of the life that the world needs, three aspects come to mind. First of all, natural life. Certainly, the first message we wish to convey is the value of human life, which must be welcomed, loved and cared for from conception until natural death. The current context in many countries tends to introduce and justify practices, and even laws, that do not respect this value.

Against the backdrop of declining birth rates in Europe, the journey to France offers an opportunity to rediscover life as a gift to be welcomed with gratitude and responsibility. But what would bodily life be without the soul? This brings me to the second meaning, that of spiritual life.

France today stands out for its large number of young adult catechumens. This provides an opportunity to highlight the thirst for spiritual life that marks the world today. Behind the motto “that the world may have life” one can read “that the world may believe”. For there is no life of the body without life of the soul.

Finally, the marvellous work carried out in rebuilding Notre-Dame Cathedral highlights the craftsmanship and intellectual work of which human beings are capable today. Thus, in an increasingly technological and artificial world, the motto of the journey to Paris makes it possible to draw attention to the creative vitality of the human person. May the use of new technologies, including AI, never cause humanity to forget this aspect of its life.

The Pope will visit UNESCO, a place dedicated to culture, education and cooperation among peoples. What weight can culture and education carry in building peace, together with politics? And what role can the Church play in this process?

In Magnifica humanitas, Pope Leo XIV stressed the need to move from a “culture of power” to a “culture of negotiation”, in which “dialogue and diplomatic relations become the ordinary way of addressing conflicts” (no. 221). This is a cultural transition even before it is a political one; it entails, in fact, a commitment to educating people, especially the younger generations, to regard engagement with others not as a weakness but as a form of responsibility, and to recognize dialogue as a means of building the common good.

Politics naturally has an irreplaceable responsibility: it must build just institutions, uphold the law and seek solutions to conflicts through diplomacy. But politics alone risks intervening when divisions have already become deep. Culture and education can act much earlier, forming people who are capable of recognizing in the other a brother or sister in humanity rather than an enemy.

From this perspective, UNESCO represents a particularly significant place: a place where culture and education become concrete instruments of cooperation among peoples. A school, a university, a museum, a place of culture can become genuine laboratories of peace when they teach people to understand the history of the other, distinguish truth from propaganda, engage without fear and recognize what, beyond our differences, makes us human.

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And here I also see the role of the Church, in response to her particular vocation: to help form consciences in the light of the Gospel, to build bridges, to educate for encounter and to give a voice to those at risk of having none. The Church, by her very nature, is called to be a space in which people, peoples and different cultures learn to listen to one another, to know one another and to recognize one another in the common dignity of being children of God.

The relationship between faith and reason is one of the great themes of the French cultural tradition. In a society marked by technology and artificial intelligence, what contribution can Christian thought make today to the question of what it truly means to be human?

This is, so to speak, a contribution that is original to Christianity, prompted by the mystery of the Incarnation to rethink and understand what it means to be human in the light of Revelation. The Second Vatican Council represented a fundamental moment in this mission at the service of humanity in the last century, and in these months Pope Leo has been addressing its principal contents in his catecheses.

Moreover, the positive reception of his first Encyclical Letter, Magnifica humanitas, testifies to the growing search around the world for a word capable of guiding people and societies in the face of the accelerating development of technology and artificial intelligence. We had already seen this with Pope Francis’ Encyclicals Laudato si’ and Fratelli tutti, because of their message concerning integral ecology and human fraternity.

We can observe a growing attention, in the face of ever greater challenges, to what Saint Paul VI already called a “civilization of love”, pointing towards and invoking a different direction for growth, in the sign of integral human development.

Today, in the face of the suffering of so many human beings and the damage inflicted upon entire ecosystems, it is particularly necessary to intensify reflection, social dialogue and listening to conscience. And the Church wishes to contribute to this by showing how faith and reason enrich one another and are directed towards serving life.

How can the Church engage in dialogue today with those who do not believe?

It must be said, in this regard, that dialogue always takes place between people and is all the more authentic the less interlocutors confine one another within categories and definitions. There is always, even among people of different cultures and sensibilities, common ground to be recognized and on which to meet.

Those who belong to the Catholic Church and represent her in various capacities must seek what unites and fosters encounter, and then give due contours to and deepen what is not shared. This is a style in which individuals and communities must mature, never acquiring it once and for all, and one that is not infrequently subjected to tensions that can wound and drive people apart.

More specifically, dialogue with those who do not believe is already encouraged in the New Testament. I would highlight two aspects that emerge from it: the duty of Christians always to respond, with gentleness and respect, to anyone who asks the reason for their hope (cf. 1 Pt 3:15); and the willingness to recognize that God’s work is free and precedes us, surprising us even where we have not yet arrived.

Faith is a gift, and no one can measure another person’s faith, and perhaps not even their own. Nevertheless, in France, for example, we are today witnessing a new desire for this gift, a renewed interest in the word of the Gospel, and choices made by young people and adults that suggest there is a future for faith even where non-belief seems to prevail.

What does the Holy See expect from France and Europe in promoting diplomatic action at this particularly delicate moment in the history of Europe and the world? Can Paris once again become a driving force for a European policy founded not only on security, but also on reconciliation, solidarity and multilateralism?

The diplomacy of the Holy See never tires of reaffirming that peace cannot be reduced to a mere balancing of forces, nor to a precarious stability guaranteed exclusively by deterrence and an arms race.

In the face of the deep fault lines that today wound the European continent and the global scene, the hope we express for France and Europe is that they may rediscover the bold vision and foresight that inspired the founding fathers of the European project.

Paris, by virtue of its cultural history, its distinguished legal tradition and its profound humanistic vocation, possesses the spiritual and political resources to give renewed impetus to a multilateralism that is today greatly weakened.

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This does not, obviously, mean disregarding legitimate security requirements; rather, it means understanding that an authentic and lasting peace can never be built against someone, but always with the other, through a shared architecture of reconciliation and dialogue that is as demanding as it is patient.

Rooted in the sources of its long Christian history — which makes France the “eldest daughter of the Church” — and drawing strength from its rich humanistic heritage, France is called today to honour this lofty mission, continuing to make the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity shine in the world.

The Holy See therefore trusts that France will know how to interpret that necessary “creative effort” towards harmony, so that Europe does not turn in upon its own fears, but reasserts itself as a fertile laboratory of solidarity, welcome and authentic integration.

The true greatness of a nation is measured precisely by its constant ability to combine fidelity to international law with the unceasing protection of human dignity.

By rejecting the logic of fatalism and resolutely investing in what the Holy Father calls the “diplomacy of encounter”, Paris can make a decisive contribution so that the Old Continent does not become an isolated fortress, but remains a beacon of hope, justice and reconciliation for the entire international community.

The journey comes after France’s approval of the law on assisted suicide. The issue of life as an inalienable good will inevitably be at the centre of attention. What message will Pope Leo XIV wish to convey on this point?

Faced with the mystery of suffering, illness and fragility that unites every human being, the Holy Father’s voice will not resound as a rigid abstract admonition, but rather as a forceful appeal to that shared responsibility that binds us to one another, especially when life becomes weaker and more vulnerable.

It is clear that the Holy See views such legislative changes with deep concern and close attention. The Church’s position on the matter is well known: she stands in constant defence of life in all its stages, expressions and dimensions, from conception to natural death.

Pope Leo XIV will recall that true compassion in the face of suffering does not consist in facilitating or anticipating the interruption of life, but in never abandoning anyone to the solitude of their suffering.

The non-negotiable duty of a civil society is to “care”, offering concrete responses of closeness, care and love. In this sense, the Pope’s appeal to France will be a heartfelt invitation to rediscover the deepest roots of its humanism by effectively and comprehensively strengthening palliative care and holistic care for the person.

Choosing to accompany suffering means investing in a social alliance that does not abdicate in the face of fragility, but responsibly takes it upon itself. The intrinsic dignity of the human being is not linked to criteria of efficiency or biological health.

Therefore, the response of the State and society to suffering cannot take the form of introducing options that risk becoming, over time, a veiled form of social pressure or a shortcut that deepens the abandonment of those who are alone.

The Pope’s words will address this delicate crossroads with the sensitivity of a Shepherd and the clarity of the Successor of Peter, speaking not only to believers but to the conscience of every person of good will.

The profound hope is that Europe, and France in particular, will continue to base its social covenant on the fundamental principle of safeguarding human dignity, where care for and protection of life marked by suffering always remain the true measure of the progress of a civilization.

The Pope is going to Lourdes, a destination for many pilgrimages and a place where suffering and human fragility become prayer and hope. What does Lourdes affirm today?

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Lourdes, today as yesterday, manifests the tenderness of the Mother of God towards humanity. At the Grotto of Massabielle, Catholic faithful and many other people come from around the world to entrust their pain, suffering, hopes and thanksgiving.

In this, Lourdes manifests the unity of humanity, which recognizes in Mary a maternal figure who listens and consoles. When one member suffers, the whole body suffers, and when one member is healed, the whole body is lifted.

At Lourdes, therefore, one experiences fraternity in life: life that is loved, life that is cared for, life that is sometimes suffered, but always a shared life, because it is an inestimable gift from God that makes us all brothers and sisters in humanity.

Pope Leo will also visit Metz, a city closely linked to the figure of Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of Europe together with De Gasperi and Adenauer, who saw reconciliation among peoples as the path to building a new continent. What reminder comes to us from that original Christian vision of Europe?

Reading the texts of Schuman, as well as those of the other founding fathers, it is explicitly stated that at the basis of their idea of Europe lies the concept of “Christian fraternity”.

After the horrors of the Second World War, which represented a negative peak of fratricidal violence, pursued through a clear vision of domination of man over man, in the light of a vision of humanity that, having no longer God as a point of reference, believed it had no limits in the exercise of its power, Christian fraternity proposes, by contrast, a profound respect for one’s neighbour, whom each person is called to love as oneself, in a sonship that springs from a common Father.

The fundamental values of the human person, such as freedom, equality and the dignity of work, which are among the European values recalled in the Treaties, find their foundation precisely in this idea of Christian fraternity.

I therefore believe it is important to bear in mind that we cannot continue to uphold and concretely implement these values without considering that modern Europe, according to the thought and intentions of its founders, was born from Christianity itself, which is somewhat like the leaven that makes the dough rise.

From this perspective of fraternity, one understands the logic of sharing resources set out by Schuman in his Declaration, so that coal and steel could become instruments of cooperation and development rather than a pretext for new disputes, and so that a new war between former belligerents would be not only unthinkable but also materially impossible.

The Pope has spoken out several times over the past year against rearmament and the folly of the huge increase in resources devoted to armaments. What role can Europe rediscover in order to remain faithful to the spirit of the founding fathers?

The Schuman Declaration of 1950 begins: “World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.”

When peace is threatened, one can limit oneself to pursuing the adage si vis pacem para bellum, or one can put into practice “creative efforts”, as was the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community.

This intuition ended the spirit of revanche between Germans and French and enabled the prolonged period of peace from which we still benefit.

Today, too, “creative efforts” are possible, also by drawing on the experience of dialogue developed over these decades within the Community institutions and among the Member States.

Such “efforts”, however, require a clear recognition by all that the challenges before us can be met only if the idea matures that Europe is not a superstructure, but a genuine body in which the multiplicity of its members is harmonized by a common vision and a common will in the sphere of foreign policy.

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In this sense, a Europe capable of developing a shared diplomatic outlook can make greater use of its negotiating capabilities and exercise its moral suasion even in the face of those who believe that the threat of force is more persuasive.

Perhaps this is precisely what the creative effort consists of: making people understand that a convincing word, clearly spoken with one voice, is stronger than any display of muscle.

What is your personal hope for this journey?

I hope that this Apostolic Journey will not be exhausted within the space of journalistic coverage, but may inaugurate a generative process, a long-term journey capable of engaging first and foremost the younger generations, who are called to inherit the complex challenges of an age undergoing profound transition.

At a time when the outlook for tomorrow is often clouded by fear or disillusionment, the presence and words of the Holy Father seek to be a seed of trust and an invitation not to resign ourselves to the logic of fragmentation, polarization and individualism.

The hope is that this visit may help awaken the finest and noblest energies of society, pointing towards paths in which technological development and economic dynamics are not regarded as ends in themselves, but remain rigorously at the service of the integral development of the human person.

Looking towards the coming decades, I hope that France will be able to draw upon the extraordinary richness of its spiritual, civic and cultural heritage to offer far-sighted responses to the great ethical and social questions of our century.

We would like this journey to give rise to renewed dynamism: a great open workshop of thought and action in which believers and non-believers can walk and work together.

Only by laying solid foundations today, based on justice and intergenerational responsibility, will we be able to hand on to those who come after us a world that is authentically more fraternal and a reconciled earth.