(About the 2025 papal conclave) The future nominations? You do that in the media and newspapers. We are not yet at the decision stage, we are still d… - Fernando Filoni

If we base coexistence on human rights, then we all have the same rights. The Middle East belongs to everyone because of its ancient culture and civilization. We are indebted to it. Also, from the Christian point of view, here took place Jesus’ life, that of the prophets, of the primitive Church that had great vitality for centuries. The Christian presence, even in its multiform expressions, is important. The logic of making these communities disappear is like making life disappear and preparing a desert, an impoverished environment. For millennia, the presence of so many religious, ethnic and cultural expressions has enriched this region. Of course, it is not like persecution never got the better of civil coexistence there in the past — far from it! But we ask ourselves: Must we continue with that logic? Have we learned nothing from history and from the suffering of millions of people? Is it still necessary to resort to the logic of oppression? Why should the riches of that region make envy, jealousy, oppression prevail instead of development, sharing and peaceful coexistence?

(About the 2003 invasion of Iraq) Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, and the Sunni Islamic minority – a significant minority – effectively held power. The Shiites did not; on the contrary, they had been oppressed, especially in the centre and south. So when Saddam's regime fell, the first thing that happened was that the Shiites took power. As a result, between the allies who were advancing and bringing down the regime and the others who did not know how they would react, anarchy reigned. Every day there were attacks, not military ones, but by those seeking to seize power or take advantage of the situation to steal. It was a period of huge fires and casualties: just because someone was driving by, they would steal their car... There was chaos, no one knew who was in charge, the military and the police had disappeared, there was no authority of any kind to control the situation. Everyone remembers the looting of the ministries, except for one that was immediately guarded: the oil ministry. I remember well how one of the most terrible things was the looting of the museums, where thousands of works of art disappeared. Even the American military took them away, and in fact they were later found in their backpacks. The burning of the immense Library of Baghdad was also terrible. For two or three days, ash rained down on the city. It was an unacceptable destruction: to attack the libraries was to attack history, the life of a people, not to mention the fact that all of humanity was deprived of priceless treasures.

Dopo i grandi tempi di San Giovanni Paolo II, che ci ha dato una visione di Chiesa universale capace di abbattere muri, e dopo Benedetto XVI, che ci ha parlato di Dio in modo profondo e accessibile, papa Francesco ha offerto una sintesi di queste due visioni. Credo che non si possa non proseguire su questa linea. Tuttavia, ogni Papa interpreta con originalità il mandato di Pietro, ascoltando i confratelli riuniti in Conclave, che portano le esperienze delle loro Chiese e culture. [...] Il nuovo pontefice dovrà rafforzare l'unità della Chiesa. Intensificare le relazioni ecumeniche e il dialogo interreligioso. E poi, c'è la metodologia: la Chiesa ha camminato su un binario di sinodalità, della collegialità e di valorizzazione delle conferenze episcopali. Credo che questa strada vada consolidata. Il nuovo papa è chiamato a camminare in mezzo al suo popolo, però tenendo presente le realtà di chi sta avanti, di chi sta dietro. E di chi sta a destra e a sinistra.