The leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church delivered a list of Ukrainian prisoners and missing persons to the Pope during an audience at the Vatican.
Pope Leo received Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in the Apostolic Palace on 12 February.
The prelate thanked Leo for his continued engagement and support in bringing a just and lasting peace, as Ukraine approaches the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, and once again extended an invitation for a papal visit to Ukraine. He also handed over the list with 400 names.
“The names of our soldiers who are in captivity, are now in your hands,” Archbishop Shevchuk told the Pope. “Our people have a deep feeling that from now on their names are also in God’s hands.”
Shevchuk later detailed the process of assembling the lists, which serve as a critical support line for families impacted by the conflict.
“These lists are not taken from open sources,” he said in his weekly video address. “Every time I visit our communities in different cities and villages of Ukraine, parents, mothers, wives and children come to me and with tears in their eyes ask for the salvation of their loved ones. That’s when I get these names.”
The Vatican has become an important interlocutor on missing persons, including illegally deported and displaced children, with the Archbishop of Bologna Cardinal Matteo Zuppi acting as a special papal envoy under both Pope Francis and Pope Leo in facilitating their safe return.
In November, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the Pope to formalise the Holy See’s role as mediator.
Pope Leo and Shevchuk also discussed the global ministry of the UGCC. Shevchuk praised its global outreach activities and being present on every continent amid wartime. Pope Leo has shared his appreciation for the resilience of UGCC structures despite harsh conditions.
“Our local Church of Kyiv Christianity is Ukrainian in origin, yet it is not a Church only for Ukrainians. Rather, through its full and visible communion with the Successor of the Apostle Peter, it is open to proclaiming the Gospel to all peoples,” said Shevchuk.