VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis sent Matteo Cardinal Zuppi, his special envoy, to Washington DC as part of his ongoing humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine.
The July 17 to 19 visit was “in the context of the mission intended to promote peace in Ukraine and aims to exchange ideas and opinions on the current tragic situation and to support humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the most affected and fragile people, especially children,” the Vatican said in a communiqué on July 17.
The cardinal travelled to Russia and Ukraine in recent months to meet with government officials on the pope’s behalf.
Cardinal Zuppi, who is archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, travelled with an official of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
The cardinal recently explained that the Vatican mission has focused on developing a plan to return to Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia, not on mediating the conflict.
White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a July 17 statement that US president, Joe Biden, and Cardinal Zuppi were slated to meet at the White House on July 18 to “discuss the widespread suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine.”
…in the context of the mission intended to promote peace in Ukraine and aims to exchange ideas and opinions on the current tragic situation and to support humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the most affected and fragile people, especially children
The Vatican
Jean-Pierre said, “They will also discuss efforts by the United States and the Holy See to provide humanitarian aid to those affected and the [Holy See’s] focus on repatriating Ukrainian children forcibly deported by Russian officials.”
The cardinal was in Moscow from June 28 to 30 and met with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow; Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser and former ambassador to the United States; and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who isaccused by the International Criminal Court of aiding the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Ushakov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency published on June 30 that while no agreements were made in their meetings, the cardinal’s desire to “depoliticise all humanitarian affairs” was important to Russia, and that Moscow “appreciates the balanced and impartial stance of the Vatican” on the situation in Ukraine.
At a book presentation in Rome on July 4, the Cardinal Zuppi told reporters that he had already spoken to the pope about his trip to Moscow and that the Vatican is currently working on a “mechanism” to help Ukrainian children that have been taken into Russia, Vatican News reported.
“The children should be able to return to Ukraine,” he said. “The first step is verifying the children and then seeing how to return them, starting with the most fragile.”
He said, “There is no peace plan [or] mediation,” he said, “there is a great aspiration that the violence ends, that human lives can be saved starting with the defense of the youngest.”
The children should be able to return to Ukraine.The first step is verifying the children and then seeing how to return them, starting with the most fragile
Cardinal Zuppi
Speaking at an event on war in Europe on July 2, Cardinal Zuppi said that Ukrainian officials are strongly requesting the Vatican’s assistance on humanitarian efforts, particularly on protecting minors and young children.
The cardinal said on July 2 that Pope Francis’ concern is to “create all opportunities to see, to listen and encourage everything that can lead toward a resolution to the conflict.”
He said, “Of course there are small openings, we must look for them. It is precisely in the darkness that the light of peace must be sought while knowing no one has a magic wand.”
Cardinal Zuppi travelled to Ukraine from June 5 to 6 where he visited Bucha and Kyiv. In the capital he met with Ukrainian officials including the president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After their meeting June 6 Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel that only diplomatic isolation and pressure on Russia could bring a “just peace” to Ukraine.
