Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, entrusted by Pope Francis with a peace mission in Ukraine, traveled to kyiv on Monday, where he will stay until Tuesday to meet with the country’s authorities, the Vatican announced.
Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, is traveling “as an envoy of Pope Francis,” according to a statement. “The main objective of this initiative is to listen carefully to the Ukrainian authorities regarding the possible means of reaching a just peace and to support humanitarian gestures that contribute to easing tensions”specified the text.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Pope Francis said: “It’s a story as old as humanity: with peace we always win, maybe a little, but we win. With war, we lose everything.” The head of Holy See diplomacy, Pietro Parlin, had insisted in recent weeks that it was not a mediation mission in the strict sense. The objective is “to seek and favor a climate, an environment that can open the way to peace,” he said.
Two weeks ago, Pope Francis entrusted a peace mission in Ukraine to Monsignor Zuppi, the 67-year-old Archbishop of Bologna known for his work in the service of diplomacy. Francisco asked Zuppi “Help resolve the tensions in the conflict in Ukraine, with the hope that the Holy Father has never given up that he can open paths of peace,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said at the time.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi declared from kyiv that it is “unacceptable” that the violence of the war has affected children in Ukraine and that Pope Francis, speaking of Ukraine, said: “Your tears are my tears, your pain is my pain.” And today I say that your children are our children.” Zuppi met with the Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, Dmytro Lubinets, who said: “I can talk about this because many children came to Italy and it was very nice to see the hospitality with which the Italians received the Ukrainian children”.
