Pope Leo XIV reinstates the bonus for employees for the election of the new Pope, a tradition of the Roman Pontiffs that Francis had archived. It is a sum of 500 euros given today to employees, according to what ANSA has learned. Tomorrow, in the Vatican, the first audience of Pope Prevost will be held with the employees.
Today he met with the European bishops and called for a "just" peace for Ukraine. "We did not go into the details of the concrete proposals but we really focused on the importance of working for a peace that is a just peace, this balance between peace and justice seems to be a very important thing in his thinking," the bishops of Comece said in a press conference.
To achieve this just peace, the Pope and the Holy See had offered to be the seat of negotiations. Facilitators but not actors because the Vatican's objective remains to always make the actors in the field talk to each other. Today, Moscow's explicit brake has arrived, through the words of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. A confirmation of the fact that the idea of opening negotiating tables is still very theoretical.
"The Holy Father has expressed willingness to facilitate dialogue between the parties, but I have not received any feedback in this sense," Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin had already said. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who was peace envoy for humanitarian issues in Ukraine and Russia, emphasized that "Pope Leo's proposal is beautiful. 'I will make every effort, and the Holy See is available.' It is clear that it has always been available, but the Pope has exposed himself," he said at the Festival of Economics in Trento.
In the meeting between the Pope and the European bishops, conflicts were in the foreground, not only between Russia and Ukraine, but throughout the world. The president of the European bishops, Msgr. Mariano Crociata, reported that they spoke about the "particular situation of this moment with the new American administration and the difficult role that the EU finds itself playing in the global context, and this is a concern", and then, "the great theme of public opinion and the presence of forces that are going in a populist direction of opposition to the European Union itself and therefore the related themes of war and defense".
(Online Union)
