Ukraine, Pope: “Available to go to Kiev but I don’t know if it’s convenient”

The Pope confirms his willingness to go to Kiev but says he does not know if this is feasible and convenient. “War is always cruelty, an inhuman thing that goes against the human spirit. I am willing to do everything that can be done, the Holy See has a whole diplomatic side, Parolin, Gallagher are doing everything, it cannot be published everything they do for safety reasons, “says Bergoglio on the return flight from Malta. “We are at the limit of work. There are two possible trips: one to send the almsman Cardinal Krajewski – who has already been twice to help the Ukrainians – to visit the Ukrainians in Poland, he will do it. The other trip that someone has me. asked is to go to Kiev: I honestly say that I had in mind to go there, the availability is always there, there is no no, I am available, it is on the table: but I do not know if it can be done and if it will be convenient All this is in the air. And then for some time we have been thinking of a meeting with Patriarch Kirill: we are working to make it happen, we are thinking of doing it in the Middle East “. The Pope recently did not hear from the Kremlin leader But Putin would tell him the same things about the war in Ukraine as he said to the other authorities. “I would tell him the things I said to the authorities of every part, they are public – says Bergoglio on the return flight from Malta -. None of the things I said are reserved for me. I spoke to the patriarch, he made a beautiful declaration of what we said to each other. The president of Russia called me at the end of the year to congratulate me. I heard the president of Ukraine twice “. “I thought on the first day of the war to go to the Russian embassy to the Holy See, which represents the people, to ask them questions and tell them my impressions, these are the official contacts. I also heard from the major archbishop of Kiev Schevchuk – remembers – and then every three days I heard the journalist Elisabetta Piquet, who is now in Odessa: she tells me how things are going. I spoke with the rector of the seminary. part that they are, your work is for the common good, they fell to the service of the common good, let’s not forget them, they were courageous. I pray for them that the Lord give them the reward for their work “. What would you say to Putin? “The message I gave to all the authorities, the one I say publicly. I don’t have a double language, it’s always the same.”