BUDAPEST, April 22. /TASS/. Pope Francis will be remembered as a person who supported the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict even though his efforts were dismissed by Vladimir Zelensky and NATO, Head of the Hungarian Peace Circle NGO Endre Simo said in a conversation with a TASS correspondent following the pontiff’s death at 88 on April 21.
He reiterated that the Pope consistently called to settle the situation in Ukraine via talks, suggested to Kiev to raise a "white flag" and saw the root causes of the conflict. "Pope Francis understood, as few in the West do, that everyone has the right to a safe existence, and that there can be no lasting peace without at least partially satisfying Russia’s security demands. But his peace efforts were rejected by both Zelensky and NATO," Simo said.
According to him, the head of the Roman Catholic Church "sought compromise between East and West, because he believed that the opposing sides should extend a hand to each other for the sake of harmonious coexistence of peoples and nations." Pope Francis promoted dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church and in 2016 met with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill in Havana. He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin three times.
Pope Francis led the Roman Catholic Church since 2013. He was particularly respected in Hungary which he visited in 2021 and 2023. A national mourning will be declared in the country on the day of his funeral. Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban expressed condolences over his passing. Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said that the Pope "was rightly called a man of peace", adding that the pontiff was "doing everything for the sake of peace on Earth."
Pope Francis passed away on April 21 at the age of 88 due to a stroke, followed by a coma and irreversible cardiovascular collapse. A public viewing will be held in the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in Vatican City. According to his will, the Pope will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The funeral will take place on Saturday, April 26. A week-long mourning for his death has been declared in Argentina, the pontiff’s homeland.