Pope makes personal appeal in remarkable Russian Embassy trip
LA TimesPope Francis meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of their private audience at the Vatican on June 10, 2015. The pope went to the Russian Embassy on Friday to personally “express his concern about the war,” the Vatican said. Pope Francis went to the Russian Embassy on Friday to personally “express his concern about the war” in Ukraine, in an extraordinary, hands-on papal gesture that has no recent precedent. The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest Eastern Rite church in communion with Rome, welcomed Francis’ protocol-bending diplomatic intervention and said he hoped it would help dialogue prevail over force. His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk said the pope later phoned him in Kyiv and assured him “I will do everything I can.” Shevchuk, who has hunkered down in a bunker under his cathedral along with Ukrainian civilians seeking shelter, said Francis inquired during the call about the plight of clerics in the hardest-hit areas of Ukraine.