Vatican City
Reuters
Pope Francis said on Friday there was no apparent end in sight to the war in Ukraine as his peace envoy wrapped up three days of talks in Moscow.
“The tragic reality of this war that seems to have no end demands of everyone a common creative effort to imagine and forge paths of peace,” the Pope told a religious delegation from the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Pope Francis attends the Mass of Saint Peter and Paul in St Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, on 29th June, 2023. PICTURE: Vatican Media/Handout via Reuters
The Vatican said in a subsequent statement that the Pope’s envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, had finished his consultations in Moscow, where he had met one of President Vladimir Putin’s advisers, Yuri Ushakov, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill.
“[The visit was] aimed at identifying humanitarian initiatives, which could open roads to peace,” the statement said. It added that further steps would be taken, but gave no details.
Francis has called repeatedly for an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has destroyed Ukrainian villages and towns, caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people and driven millions more from their homes.
The Pope asked Zuppi in May to serve as his peace envoy and the cardinal visited Kyiv earlier this month for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Meanwhile, the Pope on Friday granted an audience to the wife of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who is behind bars in Britain and battling extradition to the United States.
“The Holy Father has received in audience Mrs. Stella Assange, with family members,” a Vatican statement said, with no further details.
Stella Assange tweeted that her family was “overwhelmed” by the private audience, with a photo of herself dressed in black in St Peter’s Square and the hashtag #FreeAssangeNOW.
She is fronting the campaign to have her husband released, but the Vatican did not say if this was discussed in the meeting or if Francis expressed any support for it.
A Vatican spokesman said papal audiences are private affairs.
Assange is wanted in the US over the release of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables in 2010. His supporters see his prosecution as a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.
Washington says the release of the documents had put lives in danger.
– With ALVISE ARMELLINI and GAVIN JONES
