Vatican warns about global dangers of attack against Syria

There is a big risk of a new world war in case of a armed interference in the conflict in Syria from the outside, Monsignor Mario Toso, the Pontifical Secretary for Justice and Peace - the Vatican’s Justice Minister - said Monday in an interview with Radio Vatican. The conflict in Syria contains all the components conducive to a war of a global scale, Cardinal Toso said. "It’s never the use of violence that brings peace,” the radio said in a summary of the interview on its website. “War brings war because it traps nations in a spiral of death.” “War carries within itself a distorted vision of power interpreted as oppression and dominion,” Monsignor Toso said. “In this context, the “other” always remains an antagonist, an enemy to defeat, and never a brother.” “War never ends, and the causes of justice are ignored,” he said. “True power, as Pope Francis says, is love. Love strengthens others, it inspires initiatives of collaboration for justice and peace.” “Civilian societies exhort their representatives on the one hand to definitively leave aside armed conflict - "never again war"- and on the other hand to work, intensely and with conviction, for peace,” Monsignor Toso said referring to the words of Pope Francis I. “The conflict in Syria contains all the ingredients to explode into a war of worldwide proportions,” he said. “No one would come out of it unharmed by conflict or by an experience of violence.” “There can be no alternative but that of reasonable encounters, of initiatives based on dialogue and negotiation,” Monsignor Toso said.