Pope wants children forcibly brought to Russia to be returned to Ukraine

“The Holy See, through the Russian Embassy in the Holy See, has acted as an intermediary in some prisoner exchange cases and I believe it can work in this case as well,” he said during the return trip to Italy at the end of the three-day visit. to Hungary. .

With that, the pope responded to questions from journalists about the request of the Prime Minister of Ukraine to help with the return of children.

The leader of the Catholic Church stressed that “the Holy See is always ready to do everything for just causes”, and also called for “not to stop the commitment” to help Ukrainian refugees.

During the traditional conversation with journalists on board the papal plane, Francis also asked Europe to make a fair distribution of migrants, stressing that it cannot always be Malta, Cyprus, Spain, Italy and Greece that suffer from the situation .

“It’s a problem that needs to be addressed, these five countries are where the majority” of migrants disembark, he said, declining to say whether he has discussed the issue with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has a hard anti-government policy – immigration.

Another topic discussed during the press conference was the return of artifacts located in the Vatican dating back to the colonization of the American continent.

“We have to give it back as much as possible,” said the leader of the Catholic Church, in reference to the petition from Canada’s indigenous peoples over works of art that are in the Vatican Museum.

“Negotiations are ongoing” and dialogue with indigenous peoples is “very fruitful,” he said, noting that some pieces have already been returned as a sign of goodwill.

“It is the seventh commandment, if you have stolen…,” said the pope, arguing that it is necessary to pass judgment on every matter, otherwise “the Egyptians will come and complain and we will not be able to give them the obelisk.” return”. [da praça de São Pedro]”, he said, concluding that “if you can, please return it so that no one gets used to putting their hand in other people’s pockets”.