EU Catholic bishops issue call for peace at Nicosia meeting

Representatives of the Catholic Church within the European Union have called upon world leaders to decide on the trail of peace and to bring an end to the assorted armed conflicts world wide.

At a gathering in Nicosia, Cyprus, the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) echoed calls by Pope Leo XIV issued a communique saying, “Let those that have weapons lay them down! Let those that have the facility to unleash wars select peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the need to dominate others, but to come across them!”

The meeting was held in Nicosia partially to recognise Cyprus’ presidency of the EU Council, which rotates every 12 months. The bishops met with the Cypriot deputy minister of culture, Vasiliki Kassianidou, to debate the continued division of the island.

Cyprus was divided into the Turkish aligned north and the south in 1974, following a Turkish invasion to forestall the success of a coup geared toward uniting Cyprus with Greece.

The incident is the closest that two NATO powers have ever come to an armed conflict.

The bishops used their visit to the Cyprus as a chance to remind the EU to prioritise resolving the division of the island. While there may be little probability of armed conflict bobbing up again in Cyprus, little has been done to resolve the division of the island.

The physical division of the island signifies that some communities face restrictions and difficulties in accessing their places of worship.

The bishops also discussed the situation of Christians living within the Holy Land, hearing from Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, via video link. Earlier this week a Benedictine abbot warned that the decline of local Christian life within the Holy Land risks the region becoming a “Christian Disneyland”.