VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican this morning, marking their third meeting since May 2023.
Early Friday morning, Zelensky’s large cavalcade brought him through Rome to a private audience with Pope Francis.
The visit, which lasted for 35 minutes, had been announced by the Vatican on October 9. It is the second in-person meeting Francis and Zelensky have had this year: they previously met during the G7 event hosted by Italy in June.
In a slight deviance from the normal, summary details released by the Vatican about visits by heads of state, the press statement pertained only to Zelensky’s conversation with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and foreign minister Archbishop Richard Gallagher. No details were given about Francis’ own conversation with Zelensky.
“The discussions in the Secretariat of State were dedicated to the state of the war and the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, as well as the ways in which it could be brought to an end, leading to just and stable peace in the country,” a Vatican statement read.
“In addition, some matters relating to the religious life of the country were examined,” it added.
Following the meeting, Zelensky posted online that “the issue of bringing our people home from captivity was the main focus of my meeting with Pope Francis.”
For all of us in Ukraine, the issue of captured and deported people remains incredibly painful. These are adults and children, many civilians who are now held in prisons and camps in Russia.
Yesterday, it was reported that Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna died in Russian… pic.twitter.com/2saE8mUHXb
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 11, 2024
Zelensky’s discussions with Parolin and Gallagher about religious life in Ukraine are notable, as religion has been a significant undercurrent of the current conflict in the region.
In August, Pope Francis publicly condemned Zelensky’s government’s decision to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC) in the country.
The Pope said:
In thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine, I fear for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for all. Praying is not committing evil. If someone commits evil against his people, he will be guilty for that, but he cannot have committed evil because he prayed. So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church. Please, let no Christian Church be abolished directly or indirectly. Churches are not to be touched!
Ukraine’s government has accused the UOC of being a means for Russia to spy on the country.
Previously, the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) criticized the Ukrainian government for raiding UOC properties and arresting some of its clergy due to the church’s former official ties to the Patriarchate of Moscow.
Then in December 2023, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) communications office reported that Russian authorities banned the church in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. The Russians reportedly also banned the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Caritas organization.
Speaking with the Pope earlier this week on the eve of Zelensky’s visit, Major Archbishop of Kiev Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk briefed Francis on the current situation in Ukraine.
He added that Zelensky views Francis as a “global moral voice and authority.”
The Ukrainian president previously visited Francis at the Vatican in February 2020 and May 2023. He is currently on a 48-hour tour of European capitals and national political leaders, having visited U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
The Holy See has been involved in diplomatic missions trying to effect peace in the current war between Russia and Ukraine. Since 2023, such efforts have been publicly led by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian bishops’ conference.
Thanks to these efforts an exchange of prisoners has been effected more than once, with the Holy See particularly calling for Russia to return children to Ukraine.
In July, Parolin visited Zelensky in Ukraine. Parolin, who has led the Holy See’s diplomatic stance on Ukraine at the wider international level – in forums such as the U.N. – has consistently re-iterated the Pope’s request for dialogue and peace in the region.
“The only means capable of achieving true, stable and just peace is dialogue between all the parties involved,” Parolin told a high-level conference in June, which was convened on the question of Ukraine.”