During a telephone conversation on April 4, 2025, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States, and Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, discussed “initiatives aimed at halting military actions” in Ukraine, announced the Holy See Press Office. During this call, the Vatican also reaffirmed its desire to achieve prisoner exchanges.
Direct contact between high-level Vatican and Russian officials has been infrequent in recent years and mostly focused on humanitarian efforts.
The discussion between the two men “focused on the general framework of global politics, with particular attention to the situation of the war in Ukraine,” the statement said.
This conversation comes at a delicate time. The mediation of US President Donald Trump's administration seems to be having difficulty making real progress towards ending the conflict.
The last official exchanges between the Holy See and the Russian Federation date back to the trips to Moscow of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis' special envoy for peace in Ukraine, in June 2023 and October 2024. During the second visit, the archbishop of Bologna, accompanied by representatives of the Secretariat of State and the Community of Sant'Egidio — of which he is a long-standing member — was able to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister.
However, Cardinal Zuppi's mission was humanitarian in nature and mainly concerned the exchange of prisoners and the fate of Ukrainian children on Russian soil. To this end, the Italian cardinal made several trips to Kiev, as well as to Washington and Beijing.
The results of this intervention remain difficult to measure, as the Vatican was not the only actor involved in these negotiations. However, the humanitarian commitment of the Holy See was welcomed by Ukraine.
A complex relationship with Russia
We have to go back to 2022, the year of the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, to find an official exchange between two senior Russian and Vatican diplomats. On March 8 of that year, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and Sergey Lavrov spoke on the phone. Later, on September 22, they met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
At the very beginning of the offensive, Pope Francis visited the Russian embassy to the Holy See on February 25, 2022, to “express his concern about the war.”
Ignoring protocol — it’s normally the ambassadors who are summoned to the Apostolic Palace by the pope — the Pontiff went in person to call for an end to the hostilities. He then informed President Vladimir Putin that he was willing to travel to Moscow, an offer he has reiterated several times, although Russia has never been in favor of this initiative.
The Holy See has always defended the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the conflict and maintained dialogue with Russia, even if it sometimes provoked the dissatisfaction of Ukrainians. However, some of Pope Francis' statements may also have displeased Moscow. This was particularly the case after the Pope's remarks in November 2022 stating that the “most cruel” fighters in the Russian offensive were “Chechens, Buryats.”
This Friday, during their telephone conversation, Sergey Lavrov and Archbishop Gallagher also discussed “the situation of the Catholic Church in the Russian Federation.” Just over half a million Catholics live in Russia, a predominantly Orthodox country, attached to the Patriarchate of Moscow. There are also more than 200 Catholic priests.
