ROME — Pope Francis offered prayers for “battered” Ukraine Wednesday, enumerating the atrocities suffered by the Ukrainian people at the hands of the Russian army.
During his weekly general audience in the Vatican, the pontiff called on the faithful to intercede for Ukraine, requesting special prayers “for the ugly things that are happening there: the torture, the deaths, the destruction.”
Last month, the pope sent the papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, as his envoy to Ukraine, the cardinal’s fourth such visit since the Russian invasion.
The cardinal traveled around the country and reportedly telephoned the pope to refer what he had encountered. “He told me about the pain of this people, the savagery, the monstrosities, the tortured corpses they find,” Francis said of the call.
During that same visit, Krajewski confirmed the existence of mass graves in areas previously occupied by Russian forces.
The cardinal described the atmosphere of grief attending the discovery of at least 400 unmarked graves just outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium.
“There are neither words, nor tears,” Krajewski said, adding that only prayer can console the heart so burdened by pain.
The cardinal reported that he had witnessed the unearthing of scores of bodies and their reburial in individual grave.
He said that outside Izium “some 50 young men, mostly policemen, firemen, soldiers dressed in white overalls, were digging and carrying away from the graves – many of them common graves – the bodies of Ukrainians who were killed some 3-4 months ago, some of them just recently buried.”
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