(OSV News) ─ The Holy See's diplomatic mission to the United Nations called for an end to Russia's war in Ukraine "not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now."
Msgr. Robert Murphy, chargé d'affaires of the Holy See's U.N. permanent observer mission, spoke at a Dec. 3 emergency session of the international assembly.
"Nothing is lost with peace. Everything can be lost with war," he said, quoting a 1939 radio message by Pope Pius XII ─ one which that pontiff delivered hours after Germany and the Soviet Union conspired to divide Eastern Europe between them, and days before both nations began their respective invasions of Poland, which marked the start of the Second World War.
Msgr. Murphy pointed to Russia's "protracted war in Ukraine," initiated in 2014 and accelerated in 2022, "with its profound and painful consequences."
The war ─ declared a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights ─ "has resulted in the devastation of once-vibrant cities and the disruption of the lives of children, who should be growing up in a peaceful environment, not one afflicted by conflicts," said Msgr. Murphy.
The emergency U.N. session also included the passage of a resolution demanding the safe return of thousands of abducted Ukrainian children, who have systematically been deported by Russia since 2014 and subjected to "patriotic re-education" designed to erase their Ukrainian identity, as well as abuse and forced adoption by Russian families.
Official Ukrainian data puts the number of children at a minimum of 19,546, but the actual total is feared to be far higher, with Russian child commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova ─ who along with Russian President Vladimir Putin is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the forced transfers ─ admitting that some 700,000 Ukrainian children were in Russian custody.
Russia's systematic deportation of Ukraine's children ─ coordinated by multiple actors, and extensively documented in reports by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab ─ violates several instruments of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Genocide Convention and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Previously, Mykola Kuleba ─ founder of the child advocacy organization Save Ukraine and Ukraine's child ombudsman from 2014-2021 ─ told OSV News that counting all Ukrainian children in Russian-occupied territories, the true number of endangered children is some 1.6 million. Some have been drafted into the Russian army upon reaching the age of 18.
"The ramifications of the war are profoundly deleterious, particularly from a humanitarian standpoint, especially for the most fragile members of society," said Msgr. Murphy in his U.N. address.
He noted that through Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who under Pope Francis and now Pope Leo XIV has served as a special envoy for humanitarian issues in Ukraine, the Holy See "will continue its efforts for the return of the children to their families, and the release of prisoners of war."
Msgr. Murphy said the Holy See "encourages both sides of the conflict and the international community to continue working for the return of children to their families, which is an issue of justice and must not be overshadowed by political considerations."
Quoting Pope Leo's Nov. 16 Angelus address, Msgr. Murphy said, "We must not become accustomed to war and destruction!"
Renewing the Holy See's "appeal for an immediate ceasefire, which will pave the way for sincere and courageous dialogue," Msgr. Murphy challenged "all nations gathered here to reject passivity and provide tangible support for any initiative that could lead to genuine negotiations and lasting peace."
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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
