Pope tells Putin: ‘Sincere’ peace efforts needed for Ukraine

Pope Francis has encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in “sincere” international efforts aimed at bringing peace to Ukraine.  The two men met privately at the Vatican on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, said his country would like to see the Vatican step up its concern about what is happening in Ukraine during the pope’s meeting with Putin. While Francis has deplored the loss of life in Ukraine and called on all sides to respect what has proven to be a shaky cease-fire, he hasn’t publicly put any blame on Russia in an apparent bid not to upset the Holy See’s delicate and often thorny relations with the Orthodox Church in Russia, where Catholics are a tiny minority.

As it was possible to predict in the context of the world situation, the talks were dedicated principally to the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.

Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Despite Putin’s late arrival, a rare breach of protocol for VIPs paying a call on the pope, Francis greeted him cordially in German, a language the Russian knows well from his secret service days. Putin nodded silently in acknowledgement. As he has done with other VIP visitors, the pontiff presented Putin with a medallion depicting an “angel of peace,” who, Francis told the Russian conquers all wars and evokes the solidarity among peoples. Putin gave the pope a depiction, embroidered with gold filament, of a church which had been destroyed in the Soviet era and later reconstructed.

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