HOLY PRESENCE

Pope Francis Says Ukraine Trip Is ‘On the Table’

Pope Francis has repeatedly criticized the war in Ukraine, though he has refused to name Russia as the aggressor.

Pope Francis said Saturday he was considering a trip to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a trip that would make him one of the most public world leaders to visit the war-torn nation since the war began. “Yes, it is on the table,” he told journalists aboard his papal plane while en route to Malta. He also said he received a letter from the family of Pierre Zakrzewski, a Fox News journalist who was killed in Ukraine last month, to which he remarked in French that Zakrzewski was “up there.” Francis has been an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though he has repeatedly refused to explicitly call out Russia itself. Instead, his criticism has been vague—he has called the war a “senseless massacre” and “violent aggression,” but he would not name Russian President Vladimir Putin as the harbinger of such violence.