Reflecting on nine months of war following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, said that “there is one side of this war that we do not always remember: it is a conflict between two peoples who belong to the same faith in Christ and the same baptism.”

“The ongoing conflict in Ukraine instead teaches us that belonging to a common tradition, recalling an identity and a culture originating from the same Gospel proclamation, are not enough to preserve us from falling into the barbarity of violence, hatred, and murderous war,” he continued. “We can only act as Christians through grace, not by tradition or culture.”