Spiritual Maintaining Humanitarian Values and Peace, Even If We Have to Go to War
By,Jacob Ereste
Freelance Journalist
The opinions of various religious and spiritual figures about the Palestinian war with Israel are no longer heeded. As a result, the humanitarian impact, the importance of dialogue and the enforcement of justice are in vain until they are forced to end in human suffering.
Pope Francis criticized the war that will always result in a humanitarian defeat for all parties. Therefore, calls for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid and the release of Sandra need to be made to calm the heated atmosphere of war that will be increasingly difficult to stop until the final limit of destruction.
Pope Leo XVI called the conflict a potential “infinite abyss” and emphasized diplomacy and morality as a substitute for war. Because Pope Leo XVI consistently urged an end to violence and the distribution of humanitarian aid for safety on earth.
The World Council of Churches and Latin Partiachate of Jerusalem urged an end to all violence and demanded respect for the human rights of all parties. The Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople highlighted the suffering of civilians and the importance of fair treatment.
From the interfaith dialogue forum — Judaism-Islam — since 2005-2008 the World Congrees of Imams and Rabbis for Peace have expressed their commitment to ending violence in the name of religion, respecting the rights of all people, and building a pluralistic and peaceful world. Likewise, Christian Lebanon — Theology (Sabeel Gaza) — combines spirituality with social justice, encouraging international law and human rights to respond to conflicts so that they can be immediately calmed and stopped.
Bishops and regional religious figures — Patriarch John X (Likodoks Church of Antioch of Lebanon) and Lebanese Muslim figures expressed their full support for the suffering people to demand that the UN and the international community act immediately, not to allow the conflict to continue to rage and claim many human and property victims.
This means that world and regional spiritual figures have also reminded that in conflicts that shed blood, there is still room for humanity, a sense of brotherhood and collective efforts towards reconciliation and peace.
In essence, the message of world spiritual figures is that violence will not resolve conflicts, because war will only deepen the suffering of humans affected by the war. And peace must be based on justice and dialogue, not on military domination. Also, respect for all parties must be a principle upheld by spiritual leaders and religious leaders.
Spiritual figures have reminded that in a bloody conflict, there is still room for compassion and collective efforts towards reconciliation as idolized by GMRI — the Indonesian Moral Reconciliation Movement — which has initiated peace must be realized. In the momentum of this war, Sri Eko Sriyanto Galgendu as the Spiritual Leader of the Archipelago also reminded, when Vladimir Putin was about to attack Ukraine in the invasion of February 24, 2022, he asked for a fatwa from the spiritual leader of Russia, Patriarch Kiriil, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Spiritual Leader Patriarch Kiriil of Moscow supports religious nationalist policies and provides spiritual considerations for Russia’s political actions, including the invasion of Ukraine. For him, war is part of the struggle against decadent Western values, and frames the conflict as a spiritual and moral battle.**
Banten, June 24, 2025
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