Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet privately on the margins of the Group of Seven summit in Borgo Egnazia, in Italy's southern Puglia region, June 14, 2024. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to the Vatican Oct. 11, four months after their last meeting, the Vatican press office announced.

The pope and the president had met in southern Italy June 14 on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit. Zelenskyy also had met with the pope at the Vatican in May 2023 and, in February 2020, before Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a brief video clip of the pope’s June meeting with Zelenskyy in southern Italy, the president could be heard telling the pope, “Thank you so much, thank you for your prayers for Ukraine, for Ukrainians, for peace in Ukraine, for Ukrainian children.”

Later, on a post on X, formerly Twitter, Ukraine’s president said he also thanked the pope for “his spiritual closeness to our people, and humanitarian aid for Ukrainians.”

“I informed the Pope about the consequences of Russian aggression, its air terror, and the difficult energy situation. We discussed the Peace Formula, the Holy See’s role in establishing a just and lasting peace, and expectations for the Global Peace Summit,” the post in June said.

“I thanked the Holy See for its participation in the Summit and highlighted its efforts aimed at bringing peace closer, particularly returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia,” the president’s post said.

The two leaders have spoken on the phone at least four times since Russia began its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022. At almost every general audience and every public recitation of the Angelus since then, Pope Francis has urged people of goodwill to pray for “beleaguered” Ukraine.

Early in 2023 Pope Francis tapped Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian bishops' conference, to be his envoy for peace in Ukraine, promoting dialogue between Russia and Ukraine and about the war with leaders in Washington and Beijing. The cardinal particularly has been working to encourage exchanges of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners and to find a way to facilitate the return of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to Russia.

The latest from america

The Irish government “has done nothing to reduce the numbers of abortions…and seems not to care why women choose abortion, or what happens to them afterwards,” Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin and Achonry said.
A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 23, 2025
Rome is organizing security, hydration stations, portable bathrooms, and giant water cannons to prepare for the influx of young pilgrims coming to celebrate the Jubilee. 
The Scopes trial has long been depicted as a clash between modern science and religious fundamentalism. But it was also a chapter in the eugenic racism that had become a creed of social elites in the early 20th century.