“The Pope is careful and look, this does not mean putting everyone on the same level,” said Zuppi.
His defence of the pope came after Francis sparked criticism on Wednesday for allegedly equating Israel and Hamas in remarks made during the general audience after meeting with delegations of Israelis and Palestinians at the Vatican.
“October 7 was a tragedy, full stop. It was a tragedy,” Zuppi continued.
“Hence the attention, the condemnation.
“Then there is what is happening in Gaza.
“Why is the Pope calling for a ceasefire? Because there is terrible suffering, and looking ahead it seems to me that he is pushing for another solution so that terrorism might truly be fought, by removing everything that can paradoxically in some way justify it.
“This is the Pope’s position, and it is not that he does not understand the motivations of the Israeli government,” he concluded.
On Wednesday Francis said during the general audience after meeting with a group of Israelis with relatives who were taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attacks and of Palestinians with family members living in Gaza that he had “heard how they both suffer”.
“They suffer so much. Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond war. This is not war, it is terrorism,” he said.
ANSA
