Cardinal Matteo Zuppi returned to Moscow on Monday to meet with Russian authorities as part of the peace mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis. Source: CNA.
The cardinal’s trip is to “evaluate further efforts to promote family reunification of Ukrainian children and the exchange of prisoners, with a view to achieving the much-hoped-for peace”, according to the Vatican.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed that the Italian cardinal began a visit to Moscow on Monday after Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs published a photo of Cardinal Zuppi shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Pope Francis asked Cardinal Zuppi to serve as a papal envoy to “initiate paths of peace” between Russia and Ukraine in May 2023.
The cardinal’s visit comes days after Pope Francis met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a 35-minute private audience at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on Friday – their third such meeting since the start of the Ukraine war.
It is Cardinal Zuppi’s second trip to Moscow since the war in Ukraine began, following a 48-hour visit in June 2023.
While serving as Pope Francis’ peace envoy, Cardinal Zuppi has made several other diplomatic visits to promote peace between Russia and Ukraine, including stops in Kyiv, Beijing, and Washington, D.C.
At the end of his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis entrusted Ukraine to the intercession of Our Lady of Fátima and appealed for an end to the war.
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Cardinal Zuppi returns to Moscow as Vatican peace envoy (By Courtney Mares, CNA)
