“Such a war, where there is no respect whatsoever for any rule, with terrible consequences on vulnerable people, women, elderly people and children, cannot be tolerated. Inacceptable. The war must end, and so must the breaches of human rights”. This was told to SIR by monsignor Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Damascus, during the fifth meeting of the Catholic charities working within the humanitarian crisis in Syria and Iraq, that is taking place in Rome, promoted by Cor Unum. “I see a lot of cruelties as well as many good deeds – the nuncio pointed out –, and for this we thank the UN and the humanitarian organisations for their efforts in Syria, in support of the population hit by the war”. Mgr. Zenari spoke of the efforts made by the Catholic Church all over the world, the figures of which have been announced by Cor Unum: in 2015 the ecclesial institutions mobilised over 207 million worth of aids to respond to humanitarian emergencies in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus and Egypt. Their range of action includes food aids, education, healthcare and non-food aids, housing and rent. 31% of such funds were allocated to Syria, 26% to Iraq, 25% to Lebanon, and 11.5% to Jordan. The 2016’s figures (as of July) speak of 196 million dollars mobilised and gone to about 4.5 million direct individual recipients. In 2014-2015 and in 2016, the ecclesial network mobilised over 530 million dollars. A big effort, which, as recalled by mgr. Zenari, has seen “over 1,000 humanitarian workers die, and many of them were young. The operative word at the Cor Unum conference is coordination. Resources are not huge, and they must be optimised and well targeted”. But, for such effort to go on, the nuncio warned, “violence must end”. An opinion shared by the special envoy of the UN General Secretariat for Syria, Staffan De Mistura, who pointed out that “there’s room for a diplomatic solution, even if a small one. We must never stop looking for peaceful, negotiated solutions. The Syrian one is en evolving conflict, and diplomacy must evolve too, to find any hope”.