March 29. 2024. 2:34

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Pope asks Italian cardinal to carry out Ukraine peace mission


Pope Francis asked Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (pictured) to lead a peace mission in Ukraine to end the conflict, the Vatican announced on Saturday (20 May).

Francis spoke first cryptically about his intention to launch a mission last month, when he returned from a visit to Hungary. He did not give any details.

Zuppi, according to a Vatican diplomatic source, will try to meet separately both with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

According to the Vatican, Zuppi will carry out his mission in line with the Vatican Secretariat of State. "He is expected to contribute in reducing tensions of conflict in Ukraine in the hope that the Holy Father never gives up on the possibility of peace processes being initiated."

On April 30, after returning from a visit to Hungary, Francis made a intriguing statement about the Vatican’s involvement in a mission that aimed to end the conflict.

"There’s a mission under way, but it hasn’t been made public yet. I will make it public when it becomes available," he said to reporters.

The Vatican announced on Saturday that the details and timing of the mission are still being worked out.

Zuppi is a member of the Sant’ Egidio Community in Rome, an organization that promotes peace and justice. In 1992, the group brokered the deal to end the Mozambique civil war, which killed over a million and forced four million more people from their homes.

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Pope Francis appointed him cardinal in 2019. He was also elected as the head of Italy’s Episcopal Conference by the Italian Episcopal Conference.

Recent Vatican Secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin stated that "now is a good time to take initiative in creating a just and peaceful peace in Ukraine".

In 2003, late Pope John Paul sent high-level officials to Washington and Baghdad to try to stop the Iraq War.

Zelenskiy, who met Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday last week, appeared to have downplayed the possibility of papal mediation.

"With due respect to His Holiness, we do not need mediators. We need a just and peaceful peace. Putin is only a killer," Zelenskiy told Italian television.

The Vatican’s statement the day Zelenskiy visited made no mention whatsoever of such a mission. Zelenskiy, on his part, asked the pope for support in Kyiv’s peace plan which calls for the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial unity, the withdrawal by Russian troops, and the cessation of hostilities.

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