SW News: Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, met Russian Patriarch Kirill in Moscow on Thursday. The cardinal was on a three-day mission on Pope’s behalf to find “ways for a just peace.”

Pope Francis entrusted Cardinal Zuppi to identify and encourage humanitarian initiatives that will lead to the much-desired peace in the war-torn nations of Russia and Ukraine.

The papal envoy also met Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights, to discuss the issue of the over 19,000 Ukrainian children who have been deported to Russia. President Zelensky had asked the Holy See for help during his audience with Pope Francis in May.

On Thursday, the cardinal presided over a solemn Eucharistic concelebration in the Cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God, where he met the Catholic community, to whom he conveyed the Holy Father's greetings, closeness, and prayers.

On Wednesday, he was received by Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's advisor for foreign policy issues.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in Ukraine at a revered pilgrimage destination to remember Soviet-era martyrs while also grieving for the soldiers lost in Russia's ongoing, full-scale invasion of their country.

On June 26, a Divine Liturgy was held on the grounds of Stradch, a Marian spiritual center in the Lviv region with a long tradition of religious piety, with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the global Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, serving as the main celebrant.

The mass commemorated the day in 1941 when Father Mykola Konrad, the pastor of Stradch's church, and layperson Volodymyr Pryima, the parish's cantor, were fatally shot by retreating Soviet troops after having delivered Holy Communion to a sick villager. Pryima and Father Konrad, who are buried at Stradch, Pryima, were among the 30 martyrs beatified by St. John Paul II during his 2001 pastoral visit to Ukraine.