He Pope Francisco received this Wednesday afternoon at the Vatican the president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in a meeting that will have the war in Ukraine as one of the central issues on the agenda, according to the president. This was announced by the president in the preview, given that among the topics of the meeting will be “Ukraine and a great global campaign against hunger in the world.”
The meeting between Francis and Lula It was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. in Argentina) in the so-called “Auletta” of the Paul VI Hall, a large complex of Vatican rooms a few meters from the papal residence of Casa Santa Marta, Vatican sources specified.
Francis met with Lula in the Vatican
Francisco decided last month that Cardinal Matteo Zuppi be his personal delegate to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict that began in February 2022, especially for humanitarian issues, while Lula seeks to promote a peace plan for the end of the war.
The Pope’s meeting with the Brazilian president will be the first that they have with Lula as president, after the meeting they had at Casa Santa Marta in February 2020.
“Francisco is very interested in putting an end to the war involving Ukraine and Russia, and I want to discuss it with him,” Lula advanced in that direction.
In an interview published today by the Corriere newspaper, Lula detailed his peace plan for the war and assured that he had sent “a special envoy, Celso Amorim, to Moscow and Kiev”, although he lamented that “both countries believe they can win militarily”.
Another topic will be the pontiff’s possible visit to Brazil, the country with the most Catholics in the world, as part of a tour that in 2024 could also include Argentina and Uruguay. Francisco went to Rio de Janeiro in 2013 to participate in World Youth Day.
In Rome, Lula will also meet with the Italian president, Sergio Mattarella; with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and with the mayor of the so-called “eternal city”, Roberto Gualtieri, who had visited him in prison in 2018. Inside the Vatican, Lula and his delegation will also meet with the substitute for the Vatican Secretary of State, Monsignor Edgar Peña Parra.
The Brazilian president’s agenda began on Tuesday with a meeting with the intellectual Domenico de Masi and continued early on Wednesday with a meeting with the general secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein.
Source: Ambito
