Saying all Christians are called to do their part to bring peace, he said: "War is a pandemic. "We are grateful today for his prophecy, so rare today when talking about peace seems to avoid taking sides or fail to acknowledge responsibility," he said. Zuppi suggested Francis was by no means neutral in demanding peace. Quoting Francis, Zuppi recalled the pontiff's frequent, emotional expressions of solidarity with the "martyred" Ukrainian people, and appeared to address the frequent criticism of the Vatican's diplomatic tradition of neutrality and Francis' unwillingness to publicly call out the Kremlin. 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.Ī pastor in Francis' style and considered "papabile" - having the qualities of a future pope - Zuppi was named last year to head the Italian bishops conference, and in that role opened the conference's spring meeting Tuesday with a wide-ranging speech about the Italian church that also dwelled on Ukraine.
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.
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. The latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.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." 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.
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