Vatican secretary of state says world’s fragmentation starts with forgetting what a human person is
NEW YORK — The root of today’s fragmented world is not technology, excess freedom, or diversity but the loss of a common understanding of who the human person is, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said at a New York dinner that took place during the United Nations General Assembly’s High-level Week.
Parolin spoke Sept. 25 as an honoree of CAPP-USA, the U.S. arm of the Fondazione Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice, a Vatican foundation that promotes Catholic social teaching and was established by St. John Paul II in 1993.
Among those present at the event were the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) Mike Waltz, Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly, and the Holy See’s permanent observer to the U.N., Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, who delivered the evening’s benediction.
Parolin said: “In the light of the Gospel, each generation must read the signs of its own times.”
Citing Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Parolin said modern technology is not humanity’s enemy but that dignity belongs to people, not systems or algorithms. He also recalled Rerum Novarum, the encyclical Pope Leo XIII penned in 1891 as the Church’s response to the industrial revolution and which laid the foundation for Catholic social teaching.
“In a world that builds towers, build places of encounter,” Parolin challenged his listeners. “In a world connected online and disconnected offline, be people of presence. In a world asking whether we can remain human, answer with the witness of your lives.”
He told attendees the foundation matters because its members are meant to be “bridge builders between the encyclicals … and the decisions made in daily life.”
Fragmentation and loneliness
Parolin said people “are more connected than any generation in history, and yet many of us are lonelier than ever.” Exchanging information instantly but struggling to encounter one another as human beings has led to fragmentation, he said, and families, communities, and nations are “divided into camps that no longer even speak the same language.”
He noted Pope Leo’s description of this moment in the opening lines of Magnifica Humanitas, saying: “We can either construct a new tower of Babel or build the city in which God and humanity dwell together.”
‘A fragmented world is a searching world’
Regarding the spiritual hunger many modern people are feeling, he said restlessness, especially among the young, is evidence that our hearts are made for God and cannot rest until we rest in him, citing St. Augustine.
“A fragmented world is also a searching world,” he noted.
“The human person is not self-made, but receives; he is a being created for relationship,” he said. “Leo expressed the hope that the world will come to recognize the human heart is the place where God desires to dwell.”
The Church’s social doctrine is “itself an expression of the spiritual life,” Parolin said, and results in a faith that becomes real “concern for the worker, the family, the poor, and the seeking of the common good.”
Freedom and pluralism not to blame, Parolin says
On freedom and pluralism, he rejected blaming “too much freedom” or “too many voices.”
The Church defends “freedom as a gift inseparable from human dignity,” he said, noting the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on “religious freedom as a right found in the very nature of the human person.”
But, he said, “freedom detached from truth and responsibility for others turns against itself.” Freedom, in the Christian vision, “is not the capacity to choose anything whatsoever. It is the capacity to choose the good.”
Authentic pluralism, he said, rests on dignity, the common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity. “We should respect the family, communities, and institutions through which people flourish,” he urged.
The next day, Sept. 26, Parolin addressed the opening of the 81st U.N. General Assembly, whose theme is “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.”
March for Life reveals 2027 theme, with truth as the focus
The March for Life announced the theme for next year’s rally in Washington, D.C.: “The Truth Is Pro-Life.”
In a Sept. 29 teleconference, the group also revealed that recently retired Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw will give the keynote address at the march, taking place on Jan. 22, 2027.
“The truth cannot be denied and that’s why we have kept our message so simple and bold this year,” said Hayden Sledge, chief of staff for the March for Life.
“Truth doesn’t shout. It’s just there, waiting to be seen,” she said. “Truth has a way of bringing people together. That’s why for more than 50 years we’ve kept showing up to defend that truth. Some things remain true no matter the culture, politics, or the year. The truth is pro-life.”
The national march occurs every year near the anniversary of the legalization of abortion nationwide in the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. The event continues despite Roe’s reversal by the court in 2022 as abortion remains legal in dozens of U.S. states. In all, some 63 million babies have been aborted since the Roe decision, according to pro-life groups.
During the press conference, the committee shared the details of the expected program and the intentional decision behind the chosen theme.
Last year’s theme was “Life Is a Gift.”
“Last year, our theme spoke to the heart,” Sledge said. “This year, we are speaking to the head and making a clear statement about the truth at the heart of our mission, because truth does not change with an election or due to politics, or current trends. It’s unchanging. That’s why our theme is ‘The Truth Is Pro-Life.’”
Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and the 2014 National League MVP, operates the nonprofit group Kershaw’s Challenge, which partners with other charities to improve the lives of children in need living in Los Angeles, Dallas, Zambia, and the Dominican Republic.
“Iʼm excited to get to be the speaker for the 2027 March for Life,” said Kershaw, while holding his 9-month-old daughter, Chloe, the youngest of his five children. “She’s excited for us to be there, too, and we can’t wait.”
In keeping with this year’s theme, the March for Life organizing committee is inviting individuals to ask “the hard questions” about human life when they interact with those outside the pro-life community.
“Today, itʼs hard to figure out what the truth is. Not because it isnʼt there, but because of the distractions. But sometimes all you have to do is look closer, get rid of the noise, the chaos, the confusion, and see whatʼs really there,” Sledge said.
About 3,000 people gather in Washington, DC, for rosary pilgrimage
WASHINGTON — Thousands of Catholics who gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday got a head start on the approaching month of the rosary by participating in a daylong event featuring prayer and talks centered on the power of the Marian prayer.
The fourth annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage drew an estimated 3,000 people, with tens of thousands of others joining via livestream broadcast.
Hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, the event included opportunities for joining in Eucharistic adoration and receiving the sacrament of reconciliation.
“Every year the pilgrimage grows. Every year, more people join us and every year those prayers are lifted up to heaven with greater enthusiasm,” said Dominican Father Patrick Briscoe, promoter general for social communication of the Province of St. Joseph, which extends from New England to Virginia to Ohio.
“It’s such a beautiful event,” said pilgrim Lauren Rodriguez, who traveled from Miami. “This is the second time I’ve come and this year I brought my husband. I just thought it was so impactful to see so much beauty, prayer, and truth in the preaching. It’s incredibly peaceful for as many activities that there are throughout the day.”
In preparation for the event, an estimated 100,000 Catholics participated in a nine-month novena, beginning on Jan. 31 and ending on Sept. 26, according to Dominican Father John Paul Kern, the St. Joseph province’s executive director.
“I think Our Lady brings us closer to him and reveals something to us about her son in a very special way with him here at this event,” Kern said.
Dominican Father Peter John Cameron, the event’s principal speaker, described the rosary as a gift and a “chain that unites people to God.”
“The rosary is something truly unique and indescribably precious,” he told EWTN News. “Because more than just a form of prayer, the rosary is a relationship. The rosary is a dynamic experience of our sonship, of our daughtership, in God.”
“For someone like me who’s so busy, and so many people are busy, it’s a day dedicated to prayer, to soak it in, receive the graces,” Rodriguez told EWTN News. “You meet so many wonderful people from all over. It really is reaching so many people and touching so many hearts.”
The Catholic Church dedicates the entire month of October to the most holy rosary and celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7.
Federal appeals court says historic cross, Nativity can remain in Los Angeles public square
A cross and Nativity will remain in a Los Angeles public plaza after a U.S. appeals court ruled against an atheist who brought a lawsuit to have the displays removed.
The two monuments are located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the historical center of the Southern California city, marking its founding in 1781.
Los Angeles resident Jack Gerritsen sued the city government claiming that the displays violate the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution. Gerritsen identifies himself as a “nonbeliever” in the suit and claims the monuments make him feel “excluded” in the public space.
A U.S. district court ruled against Gerritsen, after which he appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. On Sept. 29, the religious liberty law firm Becket announced that the appeals court had also ruled against Gerritsen.
The plaintiff “failed to establish the requirements” to justify removing the monument, the appeals court said, including failing to establish that he would “suffer irreparable harm” if the monuments were left in place.
He further failed to affirm that removing the monuments would be “in the public interest,” the court noted.
The ruling comes after a group of merchants located on Olvera Street near the monuments asked to join the lawsuit in defense of the public displays.
Among them was cafe owner Edward Flores, who said that a cultural display such as the cross and Nativity helps “[ennoble] Americans across all ethnicities, faiths, cultures, and generations to take pride in their own contributions and to see more clearly their future potential.”
The appeals court ultimately ruled against the efforts of the merchants to join the suit, arguing that their participation in the legal proceeding was moot given the court’s dismissal of Gerritsen’s request.
But Andrea Butler, a lawyer at Becket who represented the merchants in their request, said in a news release that the ruling was “common sense.”
“Los Angeles belongs to people of every faith and none, and its public square naturally bears the marks of that diversity,” Butler said.
The case will be sent back to lower district court following the appeals ruling, according to Becket. The law firm said the monuments will remain “while courts move toward a final decision in the case.”
Federal court rules in favor of Oklahoma Jewish charter school amid public funding lawsuit
A Jewish charter school in Oklahoma scored a key victory this month in its federal lawsuit seeking access to the state’s publicly funded charter program.
The ruling from the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma comes more than a year after a Catholic charter school lost a similar lawsuit seeking to be included in Oklahoma’s charter school funding.
In his decision, U.S. District Judge David Russell said the state may not “single out religious schools for exclusion” from public charter funding “solely because of their religious character.”
The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board may not deny funding to the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, Russell held, though the order only applies so long as the lawsuit continues through the federal court system.
The Oklahoma government requires charter schools to identify as “nonsectarian” and not be affiliated with religious groups. That rule was previously challenged by a Catholic institution, St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which sought funding from the charter school board and which sued the state in 2023 over being excluded from the state program.
That suit drew the backing of the U.S. bishops as well as numerous states who advocated expanded educational opportunities. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to issue a ruling in the case after the court’s justices were split in the dispute, leaving the school without charter funding.
It’s unclear whether or not the Jewish charter school dispute will affect the status of the Catholic charter school. But in his ruling Russell said the denial of the school’s application on religious grounds constituted a “concrete” and “actual” injury.
A “long line of Supreme Court precedent” supports the school’s position that the denial of its public funding violates the U.S. Constitution, the judge said.
Daniel Chen, an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the charter school, said in a press release that Oklahoma’s ban on religious charter funding was “destined to fail.”
“The Constitution doesn’t permit the state to welcome every kind of charter school except a religious one,” Chen said.
The state has 30 days to appeal to the federal Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Becket said.
Vatican confirms abuse by founder of Institute of the Incarnate Word, orders renewal
ROME — The Holy See has confirmed that Argentine priest Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), committed abuse against several individuals.
The Vatican reached this conclusion following a canonical process and has ordered the religious family, which has been under Vatican intervention for more than seven years and without self-governance, to undertake a path of renewal.
The decision was communicated during a meeting in Rome on Sept. 14 involving the pontifical delegates overseeing the menʼs and womenʼs branches of the congregation, provincial superiors of both institutes, and representatives of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The decision was made public Tuesday and had also been posted on the IVEʼs website last week.
According to a Vatican statement, both the Special Criminal Tribunal of First Instance and the Court of Appeal, established by the Churchʼs competent authority, “reached moral certainty regarding the responsibility of Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the two institutes, for committing an offense against the Sixth Commandment, perpetrated with violence against several persons,” in accordance with Canon 1395 §2 of the Code of Canon Law.
The Vatican said the clarification seeks “to restore the truth as an act of justice toward those persons who have been harmed by the founderʼs behavior.”
Reexamining the charism and purifying the institution
The statement framed the decision within the broader renewal process currently underway in both the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, which remain under Vatican oversight.
The Vatican stressed the need to pursue a process of “re-reading the charism and reviewing, renewing and purifying the spirituality, formation and apostolic activity proper to each institute, distinguishing between the gift of the Holy Spirit granted for the building up of the Church and the limitations or personal actions of the founder.”
The goal, the statement said, is to distinguish the charism received for the service of the Church from the personal conduct and shortcomings of Buela, whose legacy has long been overshadowed by allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and serious failures in governance.
A step toward renewal
The Vaticanʼs measures amount to what is effectively a process of institutional renewal. The effort bears similarities to the path undertaken by the Holy See with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi after the confirmation of abuses and crimes committed by their founder, Marcial Maciel.
The initiative has the support of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, headed by Sister Simona Brambilla, as well as the two pontifical delegates originally appointed by Pope Francis and later confirmed by Pope Leo XIV: Bishop José Antonio Satué of Teruel and Albarracín, Spain, for the menʼs branch and Sister Clara Echarte for the womenʼs branch.
Presence in 45 countries
The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word is present in 45 countries and includes more than 3,000 members, including priests, religious sisters, and lay members of its Third Secular Order. Founded in Argentina in 1984, it experienced rapid international growth in the decades that followed.
However, just 11 years after its founding, the Holy See began intervening in the congregation amid allegations of sexual abuse against Buela and other concerns involving the exercise of authority and community life. Since then, various pontifical commissioners and delegates have sought to address the situation.
A major milestone came in December 2016, when the Diocese of San Rafael in Argentina publicly announced that the Vatican had found Buela guilty of “improper behavior with adults.” In a statement read at the time during a press conference, the diocese said allegations had emerged involving “sexual actions affecting religious and seminarians of the institute.”
In 2019, Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló was appointed pontifical commissioner. He imposed restrictions on the congregationʼs expansion and publicly denounced the internal resistance he encountered during his mission.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael: Meet the 3 great archangels of the Bible
Many Catholics can, at the drop of a hat, recite the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel — the famous petition to that venerable saint to “defend us in battle” and “cast into hell Satan.”
In the culture of the Church, Michael is often accompanied by his two fellow archangels — Sts. Gabriel and Raphael — with the three forming a phalanx of protection, healing, and petition for those who ask for their intercession. The Church celebrates the three archangels with a joint feast day on Sept. 29.
St. Michael the Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel is hailed in the Book of Daniel as “the great prince who has charge of [God’s] people.”
Michael Aquilina, the executive vice president and trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, described Michael among angels as “the one most often named — and most often invoked — and most often seen in history-changing apparitions.”
Devotion to Michael, Aquilina told EWTN News, “has been with the Church from the beginning. And Michael has been with God’s people since before the beginning of the Church.”
Michael’s history in the Bible is depicted through Daniel, in Jude (in which he battles Satan for possession of Moses’ body), and in Revelation as he “wag[es] war with the dragon” alongside his fellow angels.
Michael, Aquilina said, was “a supremely important character who was there from the beginning of the story.” Rabbinic tradition holds that Michael was at the center of many of the great biblical dramas even if not explicitly mentioned.
He was an early subject of veneration in the Church, though Aquilina noted that the Reformation led to a steep decline in devotion to the angels — until the end of the 19th century, when Michael began an “amazing comeback journey” in the life of the Church.
Following a vision of Satan “running riot” on the planet, “Pope Leo [XIII] composed three prayers to St. Michael, ranging from short to long,” Aquilina said. “The brief one, he commanded, should be prayed at the end of every Mass.”
This was a regular feature of the Mass until the Vatican II era, after which it came to an end — though Pope John Paul II in 1994 urged Catholics to make the prayer a regular part of their lives.
“St. Michael is there for us in the day of battle, which is every day,” Aquilina said.
The St. Michael Prayer: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil / May God rebuke him, we humbly pray / And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the divine power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
St. Gabriel the Archangel
Gabriel appears regularly in Scripture as a messenger of God’s word, both in the Old and New Testaments. Daniel identifies Gabriel as a “man” who came “to give [him] insight and understanding,” relaying prophetic answers to Daniel’s entreaties to God.
In the New Testament, Luke relays Gabriel’s appearances to both Zechariah and the Virgin Mary. At the former, he informs the priest that his wife, Elizabeth, will soon conceive a child; at the latter he informs Mary herself that she will do the same. The two children in question, of course, were respectively John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
Christian tradition further associates Gabriel with the apostle Paul’s reference in his First Letter to the Thessalonians to the “archangel’s call” and “the sound of the trumpet of God.”
“Judgment will begin with the archangel’s call and the sound of the horn,” Aquilina told EWTN News. “Thus we hear often of Gabriel’s trumpet.”
Media workers in particular have “good professional reasons to go to Gabriel,” Aquilina said.
“Since he is the Bible’s great communicator — the great teller of good news — he is the natural patron of broadcasters and all those who work in electronic media,” he said.
“For the same reason, he’s the patron saint of preachers ... but also of postal workers, diplomats, and messengers.”
The St. Gabriel Prayer: O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.
St. Raphael the Archangel
Lesser-known among the three great archangels, Raphael’s mission from God “is not obvious to the casual reader” of the Bible, Aquilina said. Yet his story, depicted in the Book of Tobit, is “something unique in the whole Bible.” In other depictions of angels, they come to Earth only briefly, to deliver a message or to help God’s favored people in some way.
“Raphael is different,” Aquilina said. “He stays around for the whole story, and by the end he’s become something more than an angel ... he’s become a friend.”
In Tobit, Raphael accompanies Tobias, the son of the book’s namesake, as he travels to retrieve money left by his father in another town, helping him along the way and arranging for his marriage to Sarah.
The biblical account “has in every generation provided insight and consolation to the devout,” Aquilina said.
Notably, Raphael deftly uses the natural world to work God’s miracles: “What we would ordinarily call catastrophes — blindness, multiple widowhood, destitution, estrangement — all these become providential channels of grace by the time the threads of the story are all wound up in the end.”
“Raphael is patron of many kinds of people,” Aquilina said. “Of course, he’s the patron of singles in search of a mate — and those in search of a friend. He is the patron of pharmacists because he provided the salve of healing. He is a patron for anyone in search of a cure.”
He is also the patron saint of blind people, travelers, sick people, and youth.
“Raphael’s story,” Aquilina said, “remains a model for those who would enjoy the friendship of the angels.”
Prayer to St. Raphael: St. Raphael, of the glorious seven who stand before the throne of him who lives and reigns, angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains. Heal or cure the victim of disease. And guide our steps when doubtful of our ways. Amen.
This story was first published on Sept. 29, 2023, and has been updated.
Cardinal Parolin tells UN: Self-defense does not justify an arms race
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said that nations have the right to self-defense but urged them not to use it as an excuse for rearmament.
Parolin addressed the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly in New York on Sept. 26 at the opening of its 81st session. The U.N. chose “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that delivers for All” as the theme for this year’s assembly.
Parolin quoted Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, which he said “emphasized that ‘there is an urgent need to shift from the ‘culture of power’ to a genuine ‘culture of negotiation,’ in which dialogue and diplomacy become the standard means of resolving conflicts.’”
Parolin said that nations have a right to self-defense, but not as a pretext for arming themselves, especially with nuclear or autonomous weapons.
“No true peace is possible without genuine common resolve for disarmament; the legitimate right of every people to provide for its own defense must not degenerate into a race to massive rearmament,” Parolin said.
Parolin’s remarks uphold the stance of the Holy See and of Pope Leo XIV regarding nuclear disarmament. In May, Pope Leo XIV rejected United States President Donald Trump’s claim that he supported nuclear weapons.
In July, Leo wrote a foreword to the book “Disarmed and Disarming: Peace Is a Gift,” citing American singer Bob Dylan, who criticized the manufacture of nuclear bombs during the Cold War.
Would-be attacker of 2025 DC Red Mass sentenced to 5 years
A New Jersey man will spend more than half a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to charges related to his arrest outside of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle before the 2025 “Red Mass” in Washington, D.C.
Louis Geri was arrested in Washington on Oct. 5, 2025, on charges of threats to kidnap or injure a person as well as possession of a molotov cocktail.
Geri was present at the cathedral on the same day as its annual Red Mass, which honors lawmakers and judicial officials. Police later said Geri had specifically targeted Catholics and Supreme Court justices in a bomb plot.
In March, Geri pleaded guilty to a violation of the federal Hobbs Act, specifically an extortion charge, as well as possession of an unregistered firearm. He had reportedly drawn up a list of demands that included “hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments,” according to the government.
On Sept. 28 the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia announced that Geri had been sentenced to 70 months in prison over the incident. He will also serve three years of supervised release, the government said. Prosecutors had originally sought an 87-month sentence.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro described the bomb threat as “an attack on our community and on the fundamental right to worship freely.”
Geri “chose to terrorize a sacred space, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and endanger officers and parishioners, thereby preventing Supreme Court Justices from attending an annual religious event,” she said.
The 70-month sentence “reflects the seriousness of his conduct and our commitment to protecting every community from extremist threats and violence,” Pirro said.
Geri also said he was willing to use the bombs at the White House and the U.S. Capitol, according to the government. Photographs shared by the D.C. prosecutor’s office showed explosive devices that appeared to be assembled in part from fireworks and tinfoil.
Cardinal Zuppi visits Russia to urge release of Ukrainian prisoners
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, has again been appointed as a papal envoy to Russia.
Pope Leo XIV appointed Zuppi to lead a Vatican delegation to Russia from Sept. 28–30 to advocate for the release of Ukrainian prisoners amid the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.
According to Vatican News, this will be Zuppi’s third visit to Russia on behalf of the pope to advance the Vaticanʼs humanitarian peace efforts. Pope Francis appointed him as peace envoy in 2023 and 2024.
The Holy See’s plea for Ukrainian victims of the war
Zuppi explained that his visit to Russia on behalf of the Holy See aims to support efforts regarding prisoners of war and children separated from their families. He also said his mission reflects the concern of Pope Francis and now Pope Leo for those affected by the conflict.
“All of this is part of the humanitarian mission entrusted to me initially by Pope Francis and subsequently confirmed by Pope Leo XIV,” the cardinal said to the Russian news agency Tass. “We are assessing all the requests coming from both the Ukrainian and Russian sides, within the framework of the dialogue already initiated.”
“We wish to develop this dialogue further, aware of the suffering caused by the war, and we seek to contribute to bringing it to an end,” he added.
Recent Vatican efforts for peace in Ukraine
Zuppi’s recent trip to Russia follows that of Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states and international organizations. Gallagher visited the country from Aug. 25–28 to meet with senior Russian officials to discuss a peaceful resolution to the war.
Zuppi also visited Ukraine in July 2025, during which he visited the Russian prisoners of war held there.