Pope's Ukraine peace envoy blasts war as a 'pandemic' that affects everyone
Pope Francis’ peace envoy for Ukraine has blasted war as a “pandemic” and said all Christians are called to be peacemakers
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis’ peace envoy for Ukraine, a veteran of the Catholic Church's conflict-mediation efforts, blasted war as a “pandemic” on Tuesday and said all Christians are called to be peacemakers.
In his first public comments since being named Ukraine envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi called for the creation of a culture of peace to respond to the “deep anxiety, sometimes unexpressed, often unheard, of peoples who need peace.”
The Vatican on Saturday confirmed that Francis had tasked Zuppi with a mission “to help ease tensions in the conflict in Ukraine, in the never-ending hope by the Holy Father, that this can initiate paths of peace.” No further details were released, with the Vatican saying that they were still under study.
Zuppi, 67, is the archbishop of Bologna, president of the Italian bishops’ conference and a veteran of the Catholic Church’s peace mediation initiatives through his longtime affiliation with the Sant’Egidio Community. Through the Rome-based charity, Zuppi helped mediate the 1990s peace deals ending civil wars in Guatemala and Mozambique and headed the commission negotiating a cease-fire in Burundi in 2000, according to Sant'Egidio.
