Vatican City (BLAZETRENDS).- Pope Francis sends Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to kyiv on Monday, with the mission of trying to mediate in the war in Ukraine.
The Vatican has reported early that “on June 5 and 6, 2023, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will visit Kiev as Envoy of the Holy Father Francis.”
In a brief note, the Holy See explains that the main objective of this initiative “is to listen in depth to the Ukrainian authorities on possible ways to achieve a just peace and to support gestures of humanity that help to alleviate tensions.”
According to the Pope’s intention, Zuppi will be the only interlocutor with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian president, Volodomir Zelenski, although a date for the trip to Moscow has not yet been announced.
At the moment, his agenda in Ukraine has not been disclosed either.
Expert in other mediation missions
Zuppi was commissioned by the pontiff to “lead a mission, in agreement with the Secretary of State, that contributes to reducing tensions in the conflict in Ukraine,” the Vatican revealed a few weeks ago.
The Archbishop of Bologna is known for being “a street priest” devoted to the poorest and migrants, despite having been named a cardinal.
These characteristics, but above all his mediation work in the peace agreements in Mozambique in 1992, in Guatemala in the mid-1990s and for his collaboration with Nelson Mandela for the ceasefire in Burundi in 2003, have led the pontiff to entrust him with the most delicate mission of the entire pontificate.
Witness to the delivery of arms by ETA
In the Community of Sant’Egidio known as the UN in Trastevere, the Roman neighborhood where they are based, and where Zuppi began as a priest, there is absolute silence because it will surely be them, with a long history in mediation work, who will help him in his mission.
In fact, the Community of Sant’Egidio itself is involved in an intense humanitarian task in Ukraine, with more than a thousand tons of aid, four distribution centers and a dense network of relations also with the Moscow Patriarchate.
Zuppi also participated together with the Irish Methodist Harold Good, who witnessed the disarmament of the IRA, in the act that was held at the Bayonne City Hall on April 8, 2017 where the documents with the locations of the ETA arms depots were delivered. to the members of the International Verification Commission (CIV).