“A mission is underway, but it is not yet public”, Pope Francis explained this Sunday, as the war between kyiv and Moscow is bogged down, a year after the invasion of Ukraine decided by Vladimir Cheese fries
The Vatican is taking part in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis said on Sunday, declining to give further details, Reuters news agency reports. and the American media CNN.
“I am ready to do whatever needs to be done. A mission is underway, but it is not yet public. When it is, I will reveal it,” the pope told reporters on the return flight after a three-day visit to Hungary.
“I think peace is always made by opening channels. You can never get peace by closing,” he said.
Pope Francis added that he had discussed the Ukrainian situation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and with Metropolitan of Budapest Hilarion, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. “Everyone is interested in a path to peace,” he said.
Pope Francis reveals he had pneumonia
Pope Francis, who appeared in relatively good condition, also mentioned during the flight his state of health, after being hospitalized at the end of March for what the Vatican then described as bronchitis.
The pope said he felt strong pain at the end of the March 29 general audience. “I had a high fever and (…) the doctor immediately had me hospitalized,” he said, adding that he had “acute and strong pneumonia, in the lower part of the lung”.
“The organism responded well to the treatment. Thank God, I can tell you,” he added. The pope spent three days in hospital in Rome before being released on April 1 after a course of antibiotics. In his youth, at the age of 21, Jorge Bergoglio had suffered from acute pleurisy and the surgeons had proceeded to the partial ablation of his right lung.
