Reports: Zelensky could visit Pope Francis in first papal meeting since beginning of war

Gerard O’Connell reports in America Magazine

Italian media is reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could visit Rome and meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday, May 13, in what would be an extraordinary and highly significant development.

There has been no official confirmation from the Vatican or the Italian government, and that is understandable given the security concerns that would surround such a visit. Nevertheless, some in Rome are asking if this could be “the new” but “confidential” development that 

Cardinal Parolin referred to yesterday 

at the Lateran university in Rome.

ANSA, the Italian news agency, quotes unnamed Vatican sources as saying, “It is possible that the Ukrainian president will meet the pope on Saturday.” A senior Vatican source told America, “everything is possible.”

ANSA reported that Zelensky had visited Helsinki, Finland, the Hague in the Netherlands, and is due to visit Germany in the coming days, where—

according to German media

—he will meet German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, and then could come from Berlin to Rome, but noted that “this has not been confirmed by the Italian government.” Other media specify Saturday, May 13, as the day he will be in Rome meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

Francis has sought to reach out to both Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started the war on Feb. 24, 2022, and Ukrainian President Zelensky, whom the Russians wanted to assassinate, in the hopes of achieving a ceasefire and stopping the war that has led to hundreds of thousands of casualties. The war has forced the displacement and/or exile of almost a quarter of the 44 million Ukrainians who lived in the country before the Russian invasion. It has also caused widespread destruction in the country and greatly disrupted the food and energy supply chains across the world.

It would be President Zelensky’s second face-to-face meeting with the pope and would come on the 444th day of the war.

Link to full story:

https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2023/05/11/francis-zelensky-meeting-italy-245276?utm_source=piano&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2928&pnespid=qrtmDTwaKK8U1uaZqjW4SJOVuh.yCoosIvG8w7Bv90FmsNwA9mAAobin.a2E4IrqpNMjdYle

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