“The Pope’s intention to be in the midst of a suffering people is for us Catholics, starting with me as a bishop, a reason for great hope,” Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi, SDB, the Latin-rite Bishop of Kyiv-Zhytomyr. Nonetheless, the prelate cautioned against a papal visit and said that “compared to the beginning of the conflict, a part of the population did not welcome the Pope’s words, which were considered incorrect.”

Bishop Kryvytskyi was likely referring to the Pope’s controversial comments on the causes of the war.