America has learned the meeting between the two religious leaders was first planned a week ago. It was not confirmed who initiated the exchange, but it was the first time the two have spoken since this war broke out.

On the 17th day of the war in Ukraine, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, repeated Pope Francis’ call for “an immediate ceasefire” in Ukraine.

“The people who come are not dead in a technical sense, but they have lost their lives. And they don’t have a new one yet, so they are terribly beaten, and terribly vulnerable.”

“Faith can move mountains, not to mention a stupid war,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner whom Pope Francis sent to Ukraine, told journalists in Lviv.

Pope Francis called for a stop to the armed attacks in Ukraine, and for negotiations and good sense to prevail.

Praying for an end to the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis called for prayer and fasting for the people of Ukraine.