Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2025 / 17:06 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call Wednesday afternoon.
“The pope made an appeal for Russia to take a gesture that would favor peace, emphasizing the importance of dialogue to create positive contacts between the parties and seek solutions to the conflict,” Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni said in a statement.
Bruni told members of the press that the Holy Father appealed to the Russian leader about the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and advocated for the facilitation of aid into affected areas.
The two leaders also discussed Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi’s efforts to facilitate prisoner exchanges.
“Pope Leo made reference to Patriarch Kirill, thanking him for the congratulations received at the beginning of his pontificate, and underlined how shared Christian values can be a light that helps to seek peace, defend life, and pursue genuine religious freedom,” Bruni added.
“Gratitude was expressed to the pontiff for his readiness to help settle the crisis, in particular the Vatican’s participation in resolving difficult humanitarian issues on a depoliticized basis,” the Kremlin said in a statement following the call, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin’s statement further said Putin stressed his belief to the Holy Father “that the Kyiv regime is banking on escalating the conflict and is carrying out sabotage against civilian infrastructure sites on Russian territory.”
Pope Leo XIV’s first call with Putin comes just over three weeks after his first call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on May 12. At the time, Bruni confirmed the two leaders had spoken after the pope expressed concern for Ukraine during his May 11 Sunday address.
“I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people,” Pope Leo had said after singing the Regina Coeli prayer with approximately 100,000 people.
“May everything possible be done to reach an authentic, just, and lasting peace, as soon as possible,” the Holy Father continued.
At the time, Zelenskyy shared a photo on X of him purportedly having a telephone call with Pope Leo. After expressing gratitude to the Holy Father “for his support for Ukraine and all our people,” Zelenskyy said he and the pope specifically discussed the plight of thousands of children deported by Russia.
“Ukraine counts on the Vatican’s assistance in bringing them home to their families,” he added.
Reiterating Ukraine’s commitment to work toward a “full and unconditional ceasefire” and the end of the war with Russia, Ukraine’s president said he also invited the Holy Father “to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine.”
The final Easter message delivered by Pope Francis the day before his death included a prayer for the embattled country: “May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.”
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Early in the past century near the end of World War I, things might have gone better if a mediation role for Pope Benedict XV had not been rebuffed.
On August 15, 1917 he proposed “concrete and practical propositions” for peace, but these were ignored largely over the contentious issue of restitution of seized territories. In that situation, possibly different from today, Ludendorff (de facto military dictator) feared that public support in Germany for the pope’s peace without a victory surely would be followed in his country by public resentment and even revolution (Raymond Jaems Sontag, European Diplomatic History, 1871-1932 (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1933, p. 241).
Maybe this time the Church’s long-term memory of human nature, and of history and rudimentary civilization, not only has a place at the table, but brings the table.