Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. / Credit: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images; Horacio Villalobos Corbis/Getty Images
Vatican City, Jul 23, 2024 / 13:23 pm (CNA).
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday at the end of a diplomatic visit to the country.
Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X that he had “a meaningful meeting” with Parolin and is “grateful for [the] cardinal’s support of our country and people.”
I had a meaningful meeting with the Secretary of State of the Holy See @TerzaLoggia, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
We discussed the consequences of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the ongoing aerial terror, the difficult humanitarian situation, and the outcomes of our meeting… pic.twitter.com/toxRSoooDA
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 23, 2024
Earlier the same day, Parolin toured the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv and met some of its young patients.
The country’s largest pediatric hospital partially reopened early last week, one week after it was seriously damaged in an alleged Russian missile attack on July 9.
Russia has denied responsibility for the attack, which reportedly injured dozens of children receiving treatment at the hospital.
According to Zelenskyy, he and Parolin mainly discussed the decisions of the international summit on peace in Ukraine held in Switzerland in June and the Vatican’s role in facilitating peace.
Zelenskyy also said they spoke about Russia’s ongoing aerial attacks and the humanitarian situation in the country as well as the outcomes of the president’s meeting with Pope Francis during the G7 in Italy last month.
The Secretariat of State said in a post on X that Parolin, in his meeting with Zelenskyy, “reiterated the pope’s closeness and commitment to finding a just and lasting peace.”
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin meets with Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv on Sunday, July 21, 2024. Credit: Secretariat of the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church
Parolin also met with Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, and the president of the Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, on Monday.
Tuesday marked the last full day of Parolin’s July 19–24 trip to Ukraine. It was the diplomat’s first visit to the country since the outbreak of war with Russia in 2022.
He also celebrated Mass for Latin-rite Ukrainian Catholics at the Marian shrine of Berdychiv on Sunday, traveled to the severely-damaged port city of Odesa, and met with Catholic and Orthodox leaders, including Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
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Cardinals, bishops, and priests carrying palm branches gather for the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, April 13, 2025. / Credit: Bénédicte Cedergren/EWTN News
CNA Staff, Apr 22, 2025 / 18:17 pm (CNA).
At the first general congregation of… […]
Archbishop José H. Gomez places the Book of Gospels and a cross on the coffin of Bishop David O’Connell before leading a procession at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, in downtown Los Angeles on March 3, 2023. / Photo by Jay L. Clendenin-Pool/Getty Images
CNA Newsroom, Mar 3, 2023 / 16:56 pm (CNA).
Thousands gathered Friday for the funeral of slain Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell, who was remembered as “a friend of Jesus Christ” and the poor.
Archbishop José Gomez presided over the funeral Mass, held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. Speaking briefly at the conclusion of the liturgy, Gomez said “Bishop Dave,” as O’Connell was affectionately known, would be sorely missed, but “we know that he’s in heaven.”
“From there he’s going to continue to intercede for us,” Gomez said, “as he has done his whole life.”
O’Connell, 69, a popular Irish-born priest who worked on myriad social causes in South L.A. for the past 45 years, died Feb. 18 after being shot multiple times in his Hacienda Heights home, according to District Attorney George Gascón. Carlos Medina, the husband of O’Connell’s housekeeper, has admitted to murdering the bishop, Gascón said in a Feb. 22 press conference.
One of O’Connell’s closest friends, Monsignor Jarlath “Jay” Cunnane, gave the homily at Friday’s Mass.
“We’re heartbroken with you,” he said, speaking to O’Connell’s relatives sitting in the packed cathedral. “But thank you and your parents and those who’ve gone before you for giving us the blessing of him.”
Monsignor Jarlath (Jay) Cunnane speaks at the funeral Mass of Bishop David O’Connell at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on March 3, 2023. Credit: YouTube/olaCathedral
The Holy Father’s message, which was first shared with attendees at a memorial Mass for O’Connell on Wednesday, was shared again at the beginning of Mass Friday.
“To those gathered for the Mass of Christian burial and to all who mourn Bishop O’Connell’s loss in the sure hope of the resurrection, the Holy Father cordially imparts his blessing as a pledge of peace and consolation in the Lord,” Gomez said, reading the statement, which was signed by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Following the reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Cunnane described O’Connell as “David, the friend of Jesus Christ; David, the friend of the poor.”
Said Cunnane: “I can’t imagine having walked that road without David at my side. I’m sure I would have got lost. I would have gone astray.” He said that O’Connell “was good at friendship” and was his “Anam Cara,” Gaelic for “soul friend.”
“He was a friend of souls. David did soul work. He spoke to the soul. He healed souls. He brought peace to souls,” Cunnane said, adding that “more than anything else … Bishop Dave was a friend of Jesus Christ and of Mary our Blessed Mother.”
Cunnane spoke about O’Connell’s devotion to the rosary and the Blessed Mother and mentioned his strong prayer life in recent years.
“For Dave life was, and especially in the recent years, life was prayer. Life was in the presence of Christ, and that is what he shared. Yes, he helped the poor. Yes, he fought for justice. But most of all, what he wanted to share was that encounter with Jesus Christ,” he said.
Cunnane added that he has battled sickness over the past number of years, which has hospitalized him. He said that O’Connell faithfully visited him in the hospital every day.
“I think I hear the Lord say to you, ‘My friend David O’Connell, come, blessed of my Father, enter the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of creation,’” Cunnane concluded.
‘The rock of the family’
David O’Connell, Bishop O’Connell’s nephew, offered remarks about his uncle before the Mass concluded.
“Uncle Dave was an inspiration for us throughout our whole lives and he will remain to be so,” O’Connell said.
“He taught us that if you have the capacity to help someone, you should do it. I can hear him so clearly in my mind saying, ‘Ah, it’s no problem I can do it.’ All he wanted to do was make things easier for everyone else and he never asked for a single thing in return, ever.”
Bishop David O’Connell’s nephew, David O’Connell, speaks at the bishop’s funeral Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles on March 3, 2023. Credit: YouTube/olaCathedral
O’Connell said that his uncle would consistently offer his prayers for his nieces and nephews as they encountered challenges in their lives.
“He never ended a phone call without telling me how proud he was of me,” O’Connell said, fighting back tears.
“He was really the rock of the family, the one we went to for advice, and for support. We are all heartbroken,” he said.
O’Connell said that a new opportunity presents itself following his uncle’s death.
“We now all have the opportunity to pick up where he left off and carry the example that he set. Help those that you can help. Lend an ear and listen to people. Respect each other. Be considerate and give others the benefit of the doubt. Have patience, and give everyone a chance. Make sure that those who are closest to you know that you love them and that you are proud of them,” he said.
“Uncle Dave, we all love you so much. I am so sorry that you will not be here for all the things that are to come in our lives, at least not in person,” he said. “Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.”
Pope Francis met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this afternoon, July 27, in Quebec City, as part of his weeklong “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada.
Today’s encounter wasn’t Pope Francis’ first meeting with Trudeau; the Prime Minister welcomed the pope when he arrived at Edmonton International Airport on Sunday. And Trudeau and Pope Francis have had one face-to-face meeting before, at the Vatican in 2017.
In their 36-minute 2017 meeting, which the Vatican described as “cordial,” the pope gave Trudeau a medallion symbolizing forgiveness, joy, and mutual acceptance. The medallion also references Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
During that meeting, their conversation focused on religious freedom as well as reconciliation with native people of Canada. Trudeau at that time reiterated his open invitation to the pope to come to Canada and for “reconciliation” with the indigenous communities.
That trip to Canada has now come to fruition and has included a public apology from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church’s role in running much of Canada’s government-sponsored residential school system. During more than a century of operation, the system worked to stamp out aspects of native culture, language, and religious practice. Former students at the schools have described mistreatment and even abuse within their walls, along with broad criticisms of the quality of education they received, psychological damage, and other problems such as malnutrition and unsanitary conditions.
The meeting between the two leaders in 2017 was not Trudeau’s first visit to the Vatican. A Catholic, he met St. John Paul II in 1980 during the meeting of his father, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, with the pope.
Trudeau has been criticized during his tenure as prime minister for pushing policies that are at odds with his Catholic faith, including strongly pushing for the continuation of legal abortion in Canada, as well as assisted suicide.
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