Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin arrives in Ukraine. PHOTOS
On 19 July, Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican's Secretary of State, arrived in Ukraine on a visit.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Vatican News.
Yesterday, on 19 July, Cardinal Parolin met with the hierarchs of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine and representatives of local authorities in Lviv.
However, the main purpose of the visit of the representative of the Holy See is to grant the Ukrainian shrine, the All-Ukrainian Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Berdychiv, the status of a minor basilica and to express the attention that Pope Francis pays to the situation in Ukraine.
"The reason for the visit is related to the celebrations at the Marian Sanctuary in Berdychiv. It is for this purpose that the Holy Father sent me as his special representative, also at the request of the Roman Catholic bishops to elevate the shrine to the status of a small basilica. So, the first reason will be to share this celebration and this prayer with the faithful, which, of course, will be primarily a prayer for peace. This will be a unanimous prayer offered to the Mother of God, so that She may finally grant peace to the country that the Holy Father always defines as "martyrdom", "martyrdom of Ukraine". And, of course, this occasion also gives me the opportunity to meet with the authorities of the country," Cardinal Parolin said.
He noted that after the celebrations on Sunday, 21 July, he plans to meet with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"And there, of course, I think we will talk about peace, about the possible prospects for peace," said Cardinal Parolin.
The papal envoy also noted that this visit is another expression of the Holy Father's continued attention to Ukraine and his great hopes for peace.
"From the very beginning, the Pope has been trying to find ways to end the war, to what has recently been called a just peace. We also talked about this in Burgenstock when the Peace Summit was held. So closeness, prayer and hope that we can find ways to end this war as soon as possible," said Cardinal Parolin.
In early July, a political opponent of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and leader of the opposition party Tysa Peter Magyar visited Kyiv.
