the cardinal Matteo Zuppicommissioned by Pope Francis to try to mediate the war in Ukraine, arrived in Kiev this Monday (05), according to the Vatican.
“On June 5 and 6, 2023, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will visit Kiev as an envoy of the Holy Father Francis,” the Holy See announced.
The main objective of this initiative “is to listen in depth to the Ukrainian authorities about possible ways to reach a just peace and to support humanitarian gestures that help to alleviate tensions”, explained the Vatican in a brief note.
According to the pontiff’s intention, Zuppi will be the only interlocutor with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Ukrainian, Volodymyr Zelensky, although a date for the trip to Moscow has not yet been announced.
So far, his schedule in Ukraine has also not been disclosed.
Zuppi was tasked by the pontiff to “conduct a mission that, according to the Secretary of State, will help to reduce tensions in the conflict in Ukraine”, the Vatican revealed a few weeks ago.
The archbishop of Bologna is known for being “a street priest” dedicated to the poorest and immigrants, despite having been named cardinal.
These characteristics, but above all his mediation work in peace agreements in Mozambique in 1992, in Guatemala in the mid-1990s and his collaboration with Nelson Mandela for the ceasefire in Burundi in 2003, led the pontiff to entrust to him the most delicate mission of the entire pontificate.
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