When Pope comes to Ukraine, it will be work on ending war

During a meeting with the Pope in the Vatican, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church invited the Pontiff to visit Ukraine. "I'll think about it," was the Pope's answer.

"We publicly invited the Pope to come to Ukraine. We said to him, "Today we are meeting with You and You are listening to us. And many of those who want to hear you and see you cannot be present here now. We are waiting for You in Ukraine so that You can touch the wounds of the war and help stop their bleeding."

With such initiatives as "Pope for Ukraine", His Holiness Father Francis wanted to ease our suffering. However, we have the impression that we are working only to rectify the consequences of the war. And it is necessary to affect its causes. So when the Pope comes to Ukraine, it will be the work on ending the war. We repeated our invitation in an informal atmosphere when we met with the Holy Father during dinner at the house of St. Martha. The Pope told me, "I will think about it."

Patriarch Sviatoslav talked about it in an exclusive interview for the Italian media outlet ACI Stampa. The translation of the interview was distributed by the information Department of the UGCC.