Vatican Dismisses Reports About Archbishop Gugerotti's Possible Peace Mission To Moscow

Vatican's Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, department of the Roman Curia responsible for contact with the Eastern Catholic churches, said on Friday that the prefect of the dicastery, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, will not participate in a mission to settle the conflict in Ukraine

VATICAN CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th May, 2023) Vatican's Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, department of the Roman Curia responsible for contact with the Eastern Catholic churches, said on Friday that the prefect of the dicastery, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, will not participate in a mission to settle the conflict in Ukraine.

On Thursday, Vatican's Il Sismografo news blog said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had allegedly agreed to hold talks with Pope Francis' special envoys to "discuss potential ceasefire" in Ukraine. The blog hinted at certain "preliminary arrangements," according to which Cardinal Matteo Zuppi would be Vatican's special envoy to Kiev, while Gugerotti, former papal nuncio in Ukraine, would go to Moscow.

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"The news of a peace mission entrusted to the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, has reached an international scale.�We inform you that the prefect knows nothing about this," the Dicastery said in a statement.

Pope Francis told his press pool on a flight from Budapest to Rome in late April that a mission was underway to find a "path to peace" in Ukraine, although he said the effort was not public yet.

Russia has repeatedly said it is open for peace talks as long as facts on the ground were considered. This is despite the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has outright banned his officials from engaging in such negotiations with Moscow.