WASHINGTON (OSV News): “One concern is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted,” Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, said on February 17, while indicating that the Holy See would not be joining the “Board of Peace” being set up for Gaza by US president, Donald Trump.
In comments to reporters at a bilateral meeting in Rome with the Italian government at Palazzo Borromeo, seat of the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See, Cardinal Parolin confirmed the Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States.”
The cardinal noted that “there are points that leave us somewhat perplexed” about the board, and “some critical points that would need to find explanations.”
He stressed, “The important thing is that an attempt is being made to provide a response. However, for us, there are certain critical issues that should be resolved.”
In response to a question at a February 18 press briefing about the Holy See declining to join the board, White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the decision “deeply unfortunate. I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial,” she said.
[The Holy See ] will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States Cardinal Parolin
The board is part of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which he announced in September 2025, in which he said he would establish “a new international transitional body” headed and chaired by himself, “with other members and heads of State to be announced, including former British prime minister, Tony Blair.”
Trump hosted the board’s inaugural meeting in Washington on February 19 at the US Institute of Peace, which the Trump administration renamed the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace” in December. Many allies have refused to join, fearing it may be intended to replace the UN.
However, more than two dozen countries have accepted Trump’s invitation, including Israel as well as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt. Trump sought a one billion dollar membership fee to become a member nation.
Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, provoking Israel to declare war the following day. About 1,200 people were killed in the surprise attack with militants engaging in sexual violence and taking hostages before retreating to Gaza.
In the years since, the Israeli government’s management of the ensuing conflict has been met with scrutiny and criticism, including from the United Nations, over its actions that led to civilian casualties, mass displacement and famine.
More than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed out of Gaza’s 2.1 million pre-war population—a figure Israel’s military recently acknowledged—the vast majority of killed are reported to be civilians, making the war among those with the highest civilian death rates in any 21st-century conflict.
