Vatican Secretary of State arrives in Ukraine

According to Ukrinform, this was reported by Vatican News.

The first stop of the papal legate was in Lviv, on the evening of 19 July, where Cardinal Parolin met with the hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine and representatives of local authorities.

Speaking about the expectations of the trip to Ukraine, the Holy See's Secretary of State said: "The reason for the visit is related to the celebrations at the Marian Sanctuary in Berdychiv. It is for this purpose that the Holy Father sent me as his special representative, also at the request of the Roman Catholic bishops to elevate the shrine to the status of a small basilica. So, the first reason will be to share this celebration and this prayer with the faithful, which, of course, will be primarily a prayer for peace. This will be a unanimous prayer offered to the Mother of God, so that She may finally grant peace to the country that the Holy Father always defines as "martyrdom", "martyrdom of Ukraine". And, of course, this occasion also gives me the opportunity to meet with the country's authorities."

According to the cardinal, after the celebrations on Sunday, 21 July, he plans to meet with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "And there, of course, I think we will talk about peace, about the possible prospects for peace," said Cardinal Parolin.

The papal envoy also noted that this visit is another expression of the attention that the Holy Father continues to pay to Ukraine, as well as his great hopes for peace: "From the very beginning, the Pope has been trying to find ways to end the war, to what has recently been called a just peace. We also talked about this in Burgenstock [in Switzerland], when the peace conference [Peace Summit] was held. So closeness, prayer and hope that we can find ways to end this war as soon as possible."

After visiting Lviv, the Holy See Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, travelled to Kyiv.

As reported by Ukrinform, Pope Francis met with relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war who defended Mariupol and were illegally "convicted" in Russia.

Photo: Vatican News