Hopeful encounter: The Ukrainian Vatican ambassador Andriy Jurasch on Saturday with Pope Francis in Rome
Image: EPA
There are growing indications that the Pope will soon be traveling to Ukraine. Until then, however, a few pitfalls still have to be cleared aside. They touch on the basic principles of Vatican foreign policy.
LThere is already speculation about a possible visit by Pope Francis to Ukraine. The odds are a little higher now. At the weekend, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican expressed his hope that Francis would soon travel to the country attacked by Russia. “I am very close to Ukraine and I would like to express this closeness through my visit to Ukraine,” the Pope told him, wrote Andriy Yurasch on Twitter. The ambassador added that Ukrainians would be happy to “welcome him before his trip to Kazakhstan,” where the pope will attend a three-day interfaith congress in mid-September.
“I’m sure he’ll come,” Myroslaw Marynowych told FAZ. The deputy rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv visited the pope in Rome in June as part of a Ukrainian delegation. Marynovych says he heard over the weekend that Francis does intend to visit Ukraine before traveling to the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan. The information, the former anti-communist dissident attaches great importance to, has not been confirmed. Before a trip to Ukraine, things need to be clarified that go beyond the fact that the Pope apparently wants to fly to the attacked country.
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