Pope Francis said on Saturday, a papal visit to Kyiv is "on the table" as reported by NBC news.

The statement by the Holy Father raises the possibility of an escalation of the Holy See's diplomatic and spiritual efforts to bring about an end to the fighting that has raged in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February.

The pope has spoken out repeatedly for peace in Ukraine in his general audiences and Angelus addresses since the violence began.

Pope Francis greeted a group of 15 Ukrainian war refugees consisting of mothers and children, Saturday morning, before heading to the airport for the flight to Malta, his first papal flight of 2022.

Among the refugees was a mother of two children, aged five and seven. She came to Italy for a heart surgery for her daughter, according to the Vatican on April 2.

Pope Francis meets Ukraine war refugees at his Vatican residence, April 2, Vatican Media

In his speech to civil authorities in Malta on Saturday, the pope continued to condemn the violence in Ukraine, calling for “human moderation before the infantile and destructive aggression that threatens us, before the risk of an enlarged Cold War that can stifle the life of entire peoples and generations.”

“This childishness, sadly, has not disappeared. It has re-emerged powerfully in the seductions of autocracy, new forms of imperialism, widespread aggressiveness, and the inability to build bridges and start from the poorest in our midst,” he said.

“Once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that will either be shared, or not be at all,” he said.

“Now in the night of the war that is fallen upon humanity, please let us not allow the dream of peace to fade.”

The pope has spoken out repeatedly for peace in Ukraine in his general audiences and Angelus addresses since the invasion began.
-CNA