This week on Inside The Vatican, Ricardo da Silva, S.J. interviews Anne Leahy, who once served as the Canadian ambassador to Russia and later to the Holy See, to understand Pope Francis and the Vatican in its relations with Russia.

In this episode of "Inside the Vatican," host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell examine what diplomatic and religious relationships the Vatican has to keep in mind as it weighs its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“I am ready to do everything to stop the war,” the pope said in an interview with La Nación. “Everything!”

“Let us allow the peace of Christ to enter our lives, our homes, our countries!” Pope Francis pleaded.

On the way back to Kyiv from Borodyanka, a town that had been under control of Russian forces, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski prayed amid the ruins and bodies of those killed, including by an unmarked mass grave, he told Vatican News on April 15.

On this night, brothers and sisters, let us allow the women of the Gospel to lead us by the hand, so that, with them, we may glimpse the first rays of the dawn of God’s life rising in the darkness of our world.