(ZENIT News / Rome 05.15.2025).- In one of the most emotionally charged encounters of his nascent papacy, Pope Leo XIV welcomed His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Head and Father of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, to the Apostolic Palace on Thursday. Though protocol might have framed this as a diplomatic visit, it quickly became clear that it was something far more personal: a conversation between a wounded people and a newly enthroned pontiff who has already begun to define his papacy with gestures of tenderness and peace.
Held within the private confines of the Vatican Library, the meeting was marked by words of anguish, calls for justice, and the faint glimmer of hope. Ukraine’s spiritual leader did not arrive merely as an ecclesial figure but as the voice of a nation still gripped by war and loss. “The Ukrainian people already see you as the Pope of Peace,” he told Pope Leo XIV, recalling the Pope’s recent Sunday remarks, which had moved many across Ukraine. “Your call for a true, just, and lasting peace has touched our hearts deeply.”
The meeting unfolded in a solemn rhythm. Pope Leo listened intently as His Beatitude recounted the suffering endured by his nation and Church. Not only has the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church remained on the frontlines—spiritually and physically—it has also taken on what the Patriarch called a new vocation: «the ministry of mourning». “Often, we can offer no words to a mother whose son has been killed,” he admitted. “But we can stand with her. That too is a form of proclamation—a Gospel of presence.”
A deeply symbolic gift marked the meeting’s emotional peak. The Patriarch presented the Pope with a painting titled «Requiem», by artist Bohdan Pylypiv, the grieving father of a fallen Ukrainian soldier. The image is not easily forgotten: a curled embryo entangled in the coil of a mechanical clock, surrounded by torrents of blood and time—representing unborn lives lost to war, and the merciless passage of time in an age of violence. A Roman sword-shaped hand slices through the composition like a dark omen. The Pope reportedly spent long minutes studying it in silence.
But the conversation was not only about suffering. It was also about action.
The Patriarch brought a list—dozens of names, handwritten. Prisoners of war. The missing. The detained. Each name entrusted to him by relatives across Ukraine, each one carried to the Vatican with the hope that Rome could help bear the unbearable. “The Vatican’s involvement has already made a difference,” he said, noting that treatment improves when prisoners are known to be on the Holy See’s radar. He asked Pope Leo XIV to continue the work begun under Pope Francis, who had engaged discreetly in prisoner exchanges and negotiations behind the scenes.
In response, the Pope assured him: The Holy See stands with the people of Ukraine. We will support every genuine effort for peace and justice, and walk with your people through this dark hour of history.
Before the meeting concluded, the Patriarch extended two heartfelt invitations. The first was bold: a request for Pope Leo to visit Ukraine—a nation still ravaged, still under siege. “When Saint John Paul II visited, it was a moment when Ukrainians believed communism would never return. Today, we hope your visit will be a turning point toward peace.” While the Pope made no public commitment, he acknowledged the weight of the request with a gravity that suggested deep reflection rather than polite dismissal.
The second invitation was more immediate: to receive the Ukrainian pilgrims who will come to Rome on June 28 for a special Jubilee marking the 400th anniversary of the synodal restoration of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The pilgrimage, the Patriarch explained, would gather bishops from every continent and offer prayers for peace at the tomb of St. Peter.
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