2023-06-01 05:01:00
The joint search for alternatives to arrive at peace in ukrainewas the main theme of the dialogue phone call held on Wednesday morning by the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Pope Francis. The conversation was confirmed by the Holy See Press Office and by the Brazilian government through their social networks. According to what was indicated by the Vatican sources, the president of Brazil thanked Francisco for the efforts he is making to find an agreement that puts an end to the armed conflict in Ukrainian territory and, at the same time, informed the pontiff of the contacts he has been making with other presidents and authorities from different parts of the world to add agreements for the sake of peace.
On the same occasion, the president withdrew from the Pope the invitation to visit Brazil. Jorge Bergoglio replied that he would analyze the invitation without specifying a possible date for its completion. If it takes place, it would be Francis’ second trip to Brazil, given that In July 2013, a few months after being elected Pope, Bergoglio was in Rio de Janeiro to participate in World Youth Day.
Apart from that possibility Lula and Francisco could meet in the Vatican in the month of June or July of this year to delve into the same topics. “I appreciated the gestures in defense of democracy in our country in recent years. We must have a audience in the vatican in the coming months and I have invited the Holy Father to visit Brazil,” Lula wrote on his social media.
Lula, a well-known Catholic, maintains a close relationship with the authorities of the Catholic Church in his country and met with Francis in the Vatican in March 2020. On that occasion, the now president of Brazil thanked Jorge Bergoglio for “his dedication to the oppressed people” and by the Solidarity” expressed at a time when Lula was in prison. In May 2019, the Pope responded to a letter from Lula to express his closeness and encourage him.
“I just spoke on the phone with Pope Francis. I congratulated the Pope for his efforts in defending peace in Ukraine and the fight against poverty”, Lula stated on his Twitter account.
The president of Brazil has remained extremely active trying to get a group of nations to mediate in search of a peaceful solution to the war crisis in Ukraine. For its part, the Vatican made official on May 21 a peace management in the same sense led by Cardinal Mateo Zuppi, an expert in the search for peaceful solutions to armed conflicts at the national and international level.
On May 13, the Ukrainian PresidentVolodímir Zelenski, met Francis to ask you to support the search for peace on the terms put forward by kyiv. On that occasion Zelensky gave him a bulletproof vest that had been used by a Ukrainian soldier and later painted with an image of the Virgin. Francis would have promised to collaborate in the repatriation of the Ukrainian children taken to Russia, but he avoided taking sides in the dispute, insisting on his mediation strategywithout the meeting yielding positive results in sight.
Ukraine was not the only subject of the dialogue between Francisco and Lula. The president of Brazil thanked the Pope for his permanent preaching and his initiatives against poverty in the world and for the concern that the pontiff of the Catholic Church has for the care and preservation of the Amazon, the “green lung” of the world. According to the formal communication of the Brazilian government, “in the conversation, Lula also thanked the Catholic Church in Brazil for its work to preserve the Amazonagainst the forces that attack the jungle, and for the pope’s mentions of solidarity with Brazil in recent years”.
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