Cardinal Matteo Zuppi will travel to Moscow for the second stage of the peace mission promoted by Pope Francis, after his visit to kyiv on June 5 and 6. The cardinal is expected to arrive in the Russian capital in the evening. Accompanied by an official from the State Secretariat, he will remain in Moscow tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
“The main objective of the initiative is to increase the gestures of humanity, which can help favor a solution to the current tragic situation and find ways to achieve a just peace,” the Holy See said.
On the eve of his trip, the cardinal met with the Pope to tell him about his visit to Kiev – he had returned from Ukraine the day Francis was hospitalized at the Gemelli hospital, and had not been able to speak with him – and to prepare the visit to Moscow. He will meet Moscow Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and Russian government officials, although it is not yet known if he will see Vladimir Putin.
“We will do everything possible, in full harmony with the Holy Father,” he explained a few days ago. “With a lot of patience, but also with urgency, because every day there is much more suffering.”
Regarding the words of gratitude already expressed by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, Zuppi had pronounced “a positive indication, which we have welcomed with gratitude.” Of course, the Pope’s envoy arrives in Moscow at what appears to be the most difficult moment, after the march on Moscow by the Wagner brigade that shook the Kremlin, but precisely the situation of uncertainty in the leadership of Russian power could paradoxically play in favor of a proposal for peace
For the Holy See, it is not a question of attempting direct mediation, impossible at the moment, but of “creating an environment of peace” beyond the “logic of war”, and relaxing the atmosphere as much as possible. This is how “humanitarian mediation” begins, the release of prisoners of war and the return of deported Ukrainian children to Russia. The cardinal had given the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, a letter from Pope Francis, he could send a similar one to Putin. Confidential content, but you can imagine the meaning.
In recent times, the Pontiff has repeatedly evoked the words of Pius XII in his message to the rulers of August 24, 1939, on the eve of the Second World War: “Nothing is lost by peace, everything can be lost by war”.
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