Pope Leo XIV has sent a delegation to Ukraine, headed by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to listen in depth to the Ukrainian authorities’ proposals on possible ways to achieve a just peace and support humanitarian gestures that may help ease tensions,” Vatican News reported. Interestingly enough, Zuppi first visited Russian troops held prisoner by Ukraine in Lviv.
Zuppi was accompanied by the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, and Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash. They visited an internment camp at Zakhid-1 near Lviv in western Ukraine. Zuppi brought three gifts to the prisoners: a key chain, with the hope that they can soon open their front doors to their homes and embrace their loved ones; a holy card of Salus Populo Romano, a famous image of the Virgin Mother, expressed as an “image of hope;” and a picture of Pope Leo XIV, who, Zuppi said, “sent me here to tell you that he is praying for peace and for the war to end.”
The delegation toured the center, the prisoners’ living quarters, their chapel, and their infirmary, to make sure that it was up to the standards required and that it was open to visitors. Zuppi concluded his visit with a prayer: “Let us pray that you may soon find your way home, that all of this may come to an end, and that you may begin a new life,” he said. Pointing to his heart, he added: “We must drive out everything that is evil. God always gives us hope. Let us never allow evil to grow within us, and God will always help us overcome it.”
