Previously serving as Pope Benedict XVI’s private secretary and later as prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop Georg Gänswein was sent home to Germany by Pope Francis in June 2023—“a decision that had to be digested,” he said.

“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”

Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy focused their discussion on the repatriation of Ukrainian nationals held in Russian captivity.

Pope Francis will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy back to the Vatican Oct. 11.

During the Aug. 25 recitation of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis expressed his concern over a recent Ukrainian law that proscribed the Russian Orthodox Church.

There are no simple answers as to how to end a war. Benedict XV’s prophetic but ignored call for “a stable peace honorable to all” in World War I should be an example for Pope Francis.