2023-07-19 05:01:00
Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi (67 years old), president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, is in Washington on a three-day visit, during which he will meet with US President Joe Biden, as confirmed by the White House.
Zuppi is the personal delegate of Pope Francis in charge of seeking a political and humanitarian solution to the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Jorge Bergoglio himself would have made the request to the US president requesting an interview with the archbishop responsible for the negotiations.
As part of the same mission, the Italian archbishop traveled to Moscow and kyiv in recent days and later provided a report on his efforts to Pope Francis, who personally closely follows the entire process.
The Holy See had reported that Zuppi’s trip –accompanied by a Vatican diplomatic official- took place “in the context of the mission to promote peace in Ukraine and is intended to exchange ideas and points of view on the current tragic situation and support humanitarian initiatives to alleviate the suffering of the most affected and fragile people, especially children”.
In press statements, the cardinal himself expressed his concern for the children taken to Russia at the beginning of the war and for whom steps are being taken for their return to Ukraine. Regarding the number of children retained in Russia, there is a discrepancy according to the parties. While kyiv maintains that it is about twenty thousand, Russian sources estimate it at eighty thousand.
The cardinal was in Moscow from June 28 to 30, where he did not see Vladimir Putin but was with Patriarch Kirill (the highest authority of the Russian Orthodox Church); Yury Ushakov, Kremlin foreign policy adviser and former ambassador to the United States; and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights. On June 5 and 6, Zuppi had also traveled to kyiv where he met with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, in a meeting described by the Vatican as “brief but intense.”
The White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, in charge of confirming the meeting between the US president and the Pope’s envoy, said on that occasion that “President Biden will welcome Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, and they will discuss the widespread suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine”.
The US official further stated that both “will discuss the efforts of the United States and the Holy See to provide humanitarian aid to those affected and the focus (of the Holy See) on the repatriation of Ukrainian children forcibly deported by the authorities.” Russian”.
[email protected]
#Popes #envoy #United #States #Biden #Peace #management #stop #war #Russia #Ukraine