Russia indicated on Friday that it views Pope Francis’ peace initiative in Ukraine positively, but stressed that there are no immediate plans for a Vatican mission to Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement to state news agency RIA Novosti was Moscow’s first public acknowledgment of the pope’s decision. It followed the Vatican’s weekend announcement that a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace-mediation initiatives, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, had been chosen by Francis as his envoy.
“We recognize the Holy See’s sincere desire to promote the peace process,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to RIA Novosti. “At the same time, no practical steps were taken on the Vatican side to organize the trip to Moscow.”
WHITE HOUSE CLAIMS PUTIN’S NUCLEAR PROVOCATION IN BELARUS: ‘IRRESPONSIBLE’
Zuppi told reporters on Thursday that the scope of the mission was “to help ease conflict tensions” in hopes of contributing to “paths of peace”. He drew a parallel with his efforts in the 1990s alongside the Rome-based Sant’Egidio Community to help broker peace talks that ended Mozambique’s civil war.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian Episcopal Conference, speaks during a press conference at the Vatican on May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Furthermore, Zuppi noted, the church’s initiative began with the hope of finding “paths of peace” and resulted in meetings that brought the warring sides closer together with “woven ties” between the factions and ultimately a peace accord.
PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL STATION TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN BELARUS AS A WARNING TO THE WEST
“The effort (in Ukraine) will definitely be in that direction,” Zuppi said, speaking at the conclusion of a meeting of the Italian Episcopal Conference. “We’ll see.”
Francis announced the existence of a peacekeeping mission as he returned home from Hungary last month, where he met with an envoy from the Russian Orthodox Church, which has strongly supported the Kremlin’s war. In the following weeks, Francis met at the Vatican with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who made clear he would not accept territorial concessions and rejected Francis’ reference to victims on both sides of the conflict, saying there can be no equivalence between victim and perpetrator. . .
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Zuppi noted that Francis’ hope for peace “brought the Holy Father to tears,” a reference to Dec. 8, when Francis wept before a statue of Our Lady in central Rome as he prayed for peace in Ukraine.
