Pope Francis instructed the head of the Conference of Italian Bishops, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to lead a peace mission in Ukraine. This is reported by TASS with reference to the statement of the head of the press service of the Holy See Matteo Bruni.
“I can confirm that Pope Francis has instructed Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna, President of the Conference of Italian Bishops, to lead a mission, in agreement with the Secretariat of State, that will contribute to easing tensions in the conflict in Ukraine, in the hope that the pontiff never abandoned that this can contribute to a peaceful settlement,” the statement said.
As Bruni explained, the timing of this mission and its conditions are currently being studied.
Pope Francis announced the “peace mission” of the Vatican on the Ukrainian settlement at the end of April on the way from Budapest, where he was on an apostolic visit. The pontiff did not disclose the details of the initiative, indicating that it is “not yet public”. Then both in Kyiv and Moscow indicated that they had no information on this matter. Later, after meeting with Francis at the Vatican a week ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kyiv “needs not intermediaries” but “a just world.”
The day before, the Il Sismografo portal reported, without naming its sources, that in Moscow and Kyiv they agreed to meet with papal special envoys. At the same time, according to the publication, Zuppi could go to Kyiv, and the current prefect of the decastery for the Eastern Churches, the former Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, could go to Moscow. The latter’s office later denied this information. TASS sources also indicated that the “mission readiness” information is exaggerated and “may be misleading.”
Source: Rosbalt
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