“The first thing to do is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals,” he stressed.

Newsroom (06/07/2022 11:15 AM, Gaudium Press) Last Saturday, Pope Francis gave a long interview to Reuters correspondent Phil Pullella. During the interview, which lasted about 90 minutes, the Pontiff expressed his desire to visit the capitals of Russia and Ukraine.

Serving the cause of peace

“I would like to go to Ukraine, and I wanted to go to Moscow first. We exchanged messages about this, because I thought that if the Russian president would grant me a small window, I would go there to serve the cause of peace,” the Holy Father stated.

Diplomatic talks

The Pope also explained that the Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, talked several months ago about a possible pontifical trip to Moscow. At the time, Moscow responded that the time was not right, however, something may have changed since then.

Visit to the two capitals

“There is still that very open dialogue, very cordial, very diplomatic in the positive sense of the word, but for now everything is fine; the door is open,” he assured. Francis believes that once he returns from his apostolic trip to Canada, he will be able to go to Ukraine. “The first thing to do is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals,” he stressed. (EPC)

Compiled by Florence MacDonald