The sky over St. Peter’s was gray like the prospects for peace in a fully armored Rome. After a 40-minute private meeting between Pope Francis and Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine said “No, thank you” and closed the door on the vatican mediationbut it left a margin of play for the Pontiff before the commitment of a humanitarian mission.
Even behind the cordial tones, distance loomed from the gifts the two exchanged. The Ukrainian president presented Francis with a modern icon of the Virgin painted on a plaque wearing a bulletproof vest and a painting titled “Loss” depicting Mary holding an empty silhouette of a child in her arms – one of many Ukrainian children who They died or were kidnapped by the Russians. Instead, the Pope gave him a bronze cast of a blooming flower, with the inscription “Peace is a fragile flower.” And, for now, away.
Bergoglio had received Zelensky a little over three years ago but it seems that it had been many more. At that time the images showed a smiling Zelensky, dressed in a black suit and with the face of a teenager. On the other hand, the man who appeared at the Vatican yesterday carried the weight of the Russian invasion: military uniform, black diver, a slight smile when he addressed Bergoglio: “It is a great honor,” he said with his hand on his chest as soon as he saw. Bergoglio thanked him. But the distance was perceived.
Francis’ rapprochement with the tormented Ukrainian people and the Russian people, throughout these months, has irritated Kiev.
The Pope admitted that Ukrainians need weapons to defend themselves, but is alarmed by the risk of military escalation. He would like a ceasefire as soon as possible, which would save human lives, but would be considered by Zelensky a surrender. He repeatedly offered the availability of his diplomacy to mediate in order to embark on a path of peace. But Vladimir Putin doesn’t even answer the phone and now Zelensky has told him no.
“With all due respect to the Holy Father,” said the Ukrainian president on the screen of the program “Porta a Porta” -in Spanish it means Door to Door, a political news program for decades considered the third chamber of the Italian Parliament, on the public channel Rai-. “We do not need mediators between Ukraine and the aggressor. We have to make and write an action plan to make it a just peace in Ukraine”. And then he clarified that “It is not a matter of the Vatican, the United States, Latin America, China or other countries in the world because Putin only kills and assassinates, we cannot mediate with him.”
The Vatican diplomats had no illusions, but they still had some remote hope of some possibility. It is true that in the Apostolic Palace they have always been aware that mediation can be carried out if both parties are interested in the same objective, in this case peace, but they cannot achieve it without the contribution of a third actor.
The Holy Thirste, the Pope repeated yesterday, exercises a “positive neutrality” and cultivates the “hope that the last word will never be said to avoid a conflict or resolve it peacefully”.
A goal that, at least for now, is far from being achieved. Francis and Zelensky, however, found common ground. The Ukrainian president spoke to the Pope about the 19,393 children deported by the Russians: “We must make every possible effort to bring them home,” he told him. It is one of the ten points of the “peace plan” that Francis was asked to share as the only acceptable one. But the Pope has another idea of how to achieve peace, he is convinced that a negotiation will eventually be inevitable, and he believes that Moscow should somehow get involved.
In this sense, Bergoglio has a reserved “mission”, whose letters he does not show, perhaps the sending of two cardinals to Moscow and Kiev as John Paul II did at the time in the war in Iraq. But in the meantime, he agreed to Zelensky’s request about the kidnapped children.
The Pope, according to the Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, “underlined in particular the urgent need for humane gestures towards the most fragile people, innocent victims of the conflict.”
Francis vowed to return kidnapped Ukrainian children by taking them home. Thanks to the channels with Russia that have aroused so much criticism. And hoping that humanitarian intervention is only the first step towards a peace that, for the moment, seems more like a wish.
Source: Ambito
