Youngest cardinal calls for peace, justice in Ukraine as Church bids farewell to Pope Francis
Mykola Bychok, the 44-year-old Ukrainian-Australian prelate based in Melbourne, spoke with emotional clarity in Rome just hours after Russia launched a deadly drone strikes on the city of Pavlohrad, killing three people, including a child, and injuring at least 14 others. A day earlier at least 14 people were killed and more than 80 others injured in the capital Kyiv, including children.
A shock appointment as a cardinal last December, Bychok said he'd personally spoken of the war with the late pontiff and had even asked Francis to pray for the 20,000 Ukrainian children taken by force to Russia since the war began.
'When I knelt before him, I asked him to help them,' he told reporters on Friday. 'This is the future of our country.'
Francis came under fierce criticism at times for what was viewed as failure to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin during the three-year war and echoing Kremlin talking points by saying the war was 'provoked' and portraying it as part of a wider global confrontation.
At the same time, Ukrainian officials have recognised the Vatican's efforts in mediating prisoner exchanges and the return of children taken from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia.
And while acknowledging criticisms that Francis's approach to the war lacked political force, Bychok insisted the pope's strength was pastoral, not geopolitical.
'What he offered was something uniquely Christian – a fatherly concern, and an unceasing call for peace. Not revenge, not desolation, but peace rooted in justice and reconciliation.
'In our darkest hours, he did not forget us. He prayed for peace. He wept with us ... He reminded the world not to grow indifferent.'
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