Pope Francis published a message on his Twitter account in which he remarked that although “thousands of people have been forced to flee Ukraine because of the war”, he also it is important to remember that others “have been forced to leave their homelands in Asia, Africa and the Americas”.
“My thoughts and prayers are with all of them,” he said.
“We hear the stifled plea of millions of migrants whose fundamental rights are violatedsometimes unfortunately with the complicity of the competent authorities. They are not numbers, but people of flesh and blood, faces, sometimes broken dreams”, he added.
The pontiff was harshly criticized for noting that there are other humanitarian crises in addition to the one experienced by Ukrainian refugees, but especially for not repudiating Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the moment, Francisco does not mention Russia or the president in his speeches, according to analysts to maintain a position that allows opening a negotiation or mediation. However, and without mentioning it, he spoke of “some powerful person, sadly enclosed in the anachronistic pretensions of nationalist interests, who provokes and foments conflicts.”
Returning from his visit to Malta, The Pope assured that he is “willing to do everything that needs to be done” to stop the war in Ukraine and reiterated that he does not rule out visiting kyiv.
“I am willing to do everything that needs to be done, and the Holy See, especially the diplomatic part, Cardinal (Pietro) Parolin and Monsignor (Richard) Gallagher, are doing everything,” the pontiff said when asked about the Vatican position. to the conflict while returning from his official visit to Malta.
The Vatican has been working for weeks to mediate the conflict between the two countries. Francisco remarked that “everything they do cannot be published, out of prudence, out of confidentiality, but we are at the limit of our work.”
The Pope also admitted that his possible trip to kyiv “is on the table, it is there as one of the proposals that have come”, but that he does not know “if it can be done, if it is convenient to do it and if it would be for the good or if it is convenient to do it and I have to do it, all this is up in the air”.