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“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, [...] for helping Ukraine to win the war with your spiritual aspirations and concrete deeds,” said Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, wife of President Zelensky, on November 20, 2024, during a Mass organized by the Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See to mark the 1,000th day of the conflict.
Earlier in the day, she had a private audience with Pope Francis and visited the Holy See's children's hospital, where some young Ukrainians are being treated.
To mark the 1,000 days of war since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, organized a Mass in the Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis' special envoy for peace in Ukraine, presided over the celebration.
Olena Zelenska, on a trip to Italy and the Vatican, attended the Mass along with other First Ladies - from Lithuania, Serbia and Armenia.
Laura Mattarella, daughter of the President of the Italian Republic, was also present.
“Today is the 1,001st day of humanity's confrontation with violence,” Zelenska said in her speech in Ukrainian at the end of the celebration. “Today our hearts are hurt by the daily losses and the anxiety for our loved ones, but at the same time they are filled with faith, faith in the victory of good over evil.”
Thanks to the Pope and to Cardinal Zuppi
“I am grateful and touched by all the Holy Father's initiatives to support the Ukrainian people,” she emphasized, saying she was comforted by the “spiritual support” he had shown earlier that morning.
During the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday the Pope had read out a letter written by a Ukrainian student and had denounced this 1,000th day of conflict as "a shameful catastrophe for the whole of humanity."
In the Pope’s words, “we find the strength to be even stronger,” the First Lady said.
She also praised the work of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Since May 2023, he has been the Pope's special envoy for peace in Ukraine. He has visited Kiev, Moscow, Washington and Beijing to discuss humanitarian issues.
Zelenska acknowledged the Italian cardinal's efforts to bring back to Ukraine “children, prisoners of war, imprisoned clergy members, journalists, civilians and military personnel.”
“Ukraine wants to see all its sons and daughters imprisoned or abducted by Russia return home. Ukraine wants a just and lasting peace,” she emphasized. She also thanked other representatives of the Holy See who have visited her country. Among these there is Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, who went to Ukraine to bring aid, as well as the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin.
"We will not leave you alone"
“There is no other world leader or spiritual authority who has mentioned Ukraine more often during these 1,000 tragic days for us than Pope Francis has done and continues to do,” the Ukrainian Ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, said during his speech.
He said that the support between the two states will continue to grow because they are “united by a common faith and a shared aspiration to build a free and just world. A world in which common victory over the forces of darkness will be the basis for the establishment of a just peace, a peace with God and for God.”
“Today we insistently call for an end to war and a just and lasting peace. Peace and justice are united like two inseparable sisters: for the one helps, enables and defends the other,” Cardinal Zuppi said during his homily.
He highlighted “Pope Francis' moved insistence that does not give up in the face of war, that he does not tire of wondering and questioning whether we have done all we can for peace; of calling for a 'creative' peace.”
“Peace is never weakness but strength, all the more so if it is seriously guaranteed within a credible and strong framework,” he continued. “On this night of war, however, I want to recall so many lights of life, of concrete solidarity, of closeness, that make human even that which is most inhuman. And I want to reiterate we will not leave you alone! We will not leave you alone!”
A visit to the Vatican children's hospital
Earlier in the day, after the general audience, Olena Zelenska also visited the Holy See's children's hospital, the Bambino Gesù. The facility has welcomed more than 2,500 Ukrainian children and their families since the beginning of the conflict.
According to a press release from the Bambino Gesù, the First Lady brought gifts, and thanked the institution for their help. In March 2022, just over a month after the Russian invasion, the Pope visited Ukrainian children being cared for in this hospital near the Vatican.
