“I can confirm that Pope Francis has entrusted Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops' Conference, with the responsibility of leading a mission, in agreement with the Secretariat of State, that contributes to an easing of tensions in the Ukraine conflict, in the hopes that this can initiate paths of peace, something never abandoned by the Holy Father,” Bruni told reporters.
In April the Pope announced a secret Vatican peace mission on Ukraine, knowledge of which Kyiv and Moscow both subsequently denied.
Since then, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has called on Council of Europe member states to take “initiatives” to “create a just peace in Ukraine” and said the Holy See would continue to play its part.
“Together with Pope Francis we should ask, together with Ukraine, how to create peace: we cannot passively accept that the war of aggression should continue in that country,” Parolin said at the Council of Europe summit of heads of state and government in Reykjavik on Wednesday.
ANSA
