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Pope accepts invitation to visit Ukraine - Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Pope accepts invitation to visit Ukraine - Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Photo: Pope Francis (Getty Images)

The Pope has accepted an invitation to visit Ukraine. However, the date of the visit is not yet known, states the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, according to Radio Svoboda.

The pope received an invitation to such a visit, and, according to Sviatoslav, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has assurances that it has been accepted, but it is unknown when the visit will take place.

“There is no time (for the visit - ed.) yet, but Pope Francis sometimes likes to make surprises. He can announce a visit literally a month before he decides to come to Ukraine. So we enter this new year with hope. With the hope that a just peace will prevail in Ukraine,” said the head of the Greek Catholic Church.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav recently told RBC-Ukraine about how the full-scale war has changed Ukrainian believers, relations with Pope Francis and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

Scandalous statements of the Pope

Over the past almost three years, Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken about the war between Ukraine and Russia. Quite often, his statements were ambiguous.

The most scandalous was a statement in March of this year when the Pope called on Ukraine to negotiate with Russia and used the phrase “white flag.” This statement provoked an extremely negative reaction from official Kyiv and Western countries.

However, the Pope has recently gotten into a scandal again. This time he called Russians and Ukrainians “cousins”. You can read more about this in a material by RBC-Ukraine.

Moreover, on Christmas Eve, the Pope prayed for a “Christmas truce” around the world.