Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Prof. ST Hsieh

Director, US-China Energy Industry Forum

626-376-7460

[email protected]

April 30, 2023

We wish Pope Francis all the best in his “not yet public” mission to end the war in Ukraine. It is a very difficult peace mission, and we may need divine interventions to end this terrible war.

It is true that “Everyone is interested in the road to peace.” But, except China and Vatican, no nation is engaged in any peace mission. Rather many nations are still focused on delivering more fire power to the battle ground.

Божий промысел

Pope Francis is involved in ‘mission’ to bring peace to Ukraine

Catherine Garcia, Night editor

Sun, April 30, 2023 at 5:48 PM PDT

Pope Francis on Sunday said the Vatican is engaged in a “not yet public” mission to end the war in Ukraine and doing “all that is humanly possible” to return children taken from the country and moved to Russia.

Speaking to reporters, the pope revealed that during his recent three-day visit to Budapest, he discussed the matter with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Church’s representative in Budapest. “In these meetings, we did not just talk about Little Red Riding Hood,” Francis said. “We spoke of all these things. Everyone is interested in the road to peace.”

Francis said he also met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday, and they talked about a “peace formula.” The pope added that he believes “peace is always made by opening channels.”

Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022, and at the time, Francis did not want to address Russia’s aggression “in part because he hoped that keeping the Vatican’s traditional neutrality could put him in a position to broker a cease-fire or peace,” The New York Times‘ Jason Horowitz writes. He has since condemned Russia and compared its actions to massacres carried out by Joseph Stalin.

Pope speaks of secret peace ‘mission,’ help for Ukraine kids

NICOLE WINFIELD

Sun, April 30, 2023 at 11:31 AM PDT

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday revealed that a secret peace “mission” in Russia’s war in Ukraine was under way, though he gave no details, and said the Vatican is willing to help facilitate the return of Ukrainian children taken to Russia during the war.

“I’m available to do anything,” Francis said during an airborne press conference en route home from Hungary. “There’s a mission that’s not public that’s underway; when it’s public I’ll talk about it.”

Francis gave no details when asked whether he spoke about peace initiatives during his talks in Budapest this weekend with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hungary.

Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Francis said the Holy See had already helped mediate some prisoner exchanges and would do “all that is humanly possible” to reunite families.

“All human gestures help. Gestures of cruelty don’t help,” Francis said.

By user

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.