Damascus, Syria - The Vatican's envoy to Damascus on Monday urged religious leaders in Syria to appeal for an end to the violence, warning that the “cancer of conflict” was spreading across the country.
“With the weight of your moral authority, come together and issue in the name of God a unanimous and severe warning to all parties in the conflict to cease violence and repression,” Archbishop Mario Zenari said on Vatican radio.
The conflict “is dragging the country towards destruction, towards unspeakable suffering and towards death,” the papal nuncio said.
“Issue a pressing appeal for courage to start immediately on a path to a political solution with the help of the international community,” he added.
Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria, appealing for the international community to help resolve the conflict.
Syria has a large Christian minority, with a particularly high concentration in the northern city of Aleppo that is now at the centre of the conflict.
Human rights monitors say the conflict between regime forces and the armed opposition has killed more than 20 000 people since it erupted in March 2011.
“I continue to follow with alarm that tragic and growing episodes of violence in Syria with the sad succession of deaths and injuries,” the pope said following his weekly angelus prayers at his summer residence near Rome.
“I renew an urgent appeal to bring an end to all violence and bloodshed,” he said, calling for “no effort to be spared, particularly on the part of the international community, to reach a just political solution to the conflict”.
The pontiff said his thoughts went in particular to the “huge number of internally displaced people and refugees in the neighbouring countries,” and asked that they be guaranteed the “necessary humanitarian assistance and help”.
Syrian dissidents meeting in Rome last week as guests of the Catholic conflict resolution group Sant'Egidio signed a joint appeal for a peaceful political solution to the conflict and a process of national reconciliation. - AFP