“I hope that concrete steps will be taken to put an end to the war and to avert the risk of a nuclear catastrophe in Zaporizhia,” the head of the Roman Catholic Church said on Wednesday at the end of the general audience in the Vatican in front of numerous visitors and believers. The Russian attack began six months ago.
He also thinks of the prisoners and calls on those responsible to make efforts to free them, the 85-year-old continued.
Attack on pro-war woman: “The innocent pay for the war”
The Argentine also addressed the attack in Moscow in which pro-Kremlin pro-War Darya Dugina was killed. “I think of a poor woman who was blown up by a bomb under the seat of her car in Moscow. The innocent pay for the war,” said the Pope. However, he did not name Duginas.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See Andriy Yurasch called the Pope’s speech “disappointing” on Twitter. He disagreed with calling Dugina an innocent victim. The 29-year-old was an ardent supporter of the Russian war of conquest and publicly engaged in war propaganda.
In the Vatican audience hall, some Ukrainian flags could be seen in the audience. Pope Francis has said several times that he wants to travel to Ukraine. There is no specific date for this yet. For the ailing Pope, who was pushed back into the hall in a wheelchair on Wednesday, such a trip is likely to be very strenuous. At the moment he couldn’t do it by plane, but would have to take the train to get to Kyiv, for example.
Source: Nachrichten
