Vatican City
Reuters
Pope Francis has said an eventual return by Russia of occupied territories in Ukraine is a “political problem” to be resolved by both sides, in his first public comment on Ukraine’s request for him to back its plan demanding a total Russian withdrawal.
Pope Francis meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, at the Vatican, on 13th May, 2023. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
POPE SKIPPED AUDIENCES BECAUSE OF A FEVER, VATICAN SAYS
Pope Francis did not receive anyone in audiences on Friday because he has a fever, the Vatican said on Friday.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni did not provide any further details on the health of the 86-year-old Roman Catholic leader.
“Because of a fever, Pope Francis did not receive [anyone] in audiences this morning,” Bruni said in response to a reporter’s question on why none were listed on his daily schedule earlier in the day.
Francis spent five days in a Rome hospital at the end of March for bronchitis but recovered quickly following an infusion of antibiotics and returned to his duties, including a three-day trip to Hungary at the end of April.
He appeared to be fatigued at a meeting with students near the Vatican on Thursday afternoon.
Francis, who became pope 10 years ago, is missing part of one lung. It was removed when he was a young man in his native Argentina. Since he assumed the papacy, he has had to cancel events, sometimes at the last minute, because of fevers. He was first hospitalised as Pope in 2021 for an operation to remove part of his colon.
None of the Pope’s scheduled events have been cancelled. He is due to preside at a Mass marking Pentecost on Sunday in St Peter’s Square and receive Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Monday.
It was not clear if he would hold private audiences on Saturday.
The Vatican announced earlier this week that the Pope was expected to travel to Portugal from 2nd to 6th August to attend the World Youth Day and visit the Shrine of Fatima.
– PHILIP PULLELLA, Vatican City/Reuters
In an interview with Telemundo television, Francis did not take a position on the return of territories as a fundamental condition for peace, something on which Ukraine and many of its Western backers insist.
In the interview with the US-based Spanish language network, Francis was asked twice if Russia should hand back the territories. He did not address that part of the question the first time but when pressed again, he said: “It’s a political issue. Peace will be achieved once they can talk to each other, face to face or through intermediaries. If they don’t talk…it’s a political issue”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met the Pope at the Vatican on 13th May and asked him to back Kyiv’s peace plan, which Zelenskiy has repeatedly said is not open to negotiation.
The plan calls for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, and the restoration of Ukraine’s state borders.
At the start of the war, the pope tried to take a more balanced approach in hopes of being a mediator but later began forcefully condemning Russia’s actions, comparing them to some of the worst crimes against Ukraine during the Soviet era.
In the interview, conducted in Rome on Thursday and broadcast on Friday, Francis said the Ukrainian side was “not getting their hopes” with the prospects of a mediation but added that the nations supporting Ukraine had formed a “very strong” bloc.
Francis has asked Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of the Italian bishops’ conference, to carry out a peace mission to try to end the war.
Zuppi, 67, hails from the Sant’ Egidio Community, a Rome-based peace and justice group which in 1992 brokered a deal that ended the civil war in Mozambique, which had killed about a million people and displaced about four million others.
A diplomatic source has said Zuppi would try to meet separately with Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
