two nurses, Ukrainian and Russian, will carry the cross in Rome

For Pope Francis, the procession to the Colosseum in Rome (Italy) is always an opportunity to highlight a cause important to him. Thus, in 2019, he asked Syrian migrants to carry the cross. This year, it will be two women, Russian and Ukrainian, both nurses, who will do it. The latter have already testified to the pain caused to them by the conflict. “I’m Russian, and I’m against the war“, said Albina, the Russian nurse. “I keep hoping that all this will be over as soon as possible.“, for his part hoped Irina, the Ukrainian nurse.

The two nurses are now protected, as they have received insults and threats from their countries of origin. For specialists, the pope’s initiative above all upsets the Ukrainian authorities. “What embarrasses both certain religious authorities in Ukraine, including Catholic authorities, and the Ukrainian government, is to say that before talking about reconciliation and dialogue, there must be a ceasefire“, Explain Loup Besmons de Senneville, correspondent for the newspaper La Croix in Rome. However, the pope has maintained his choice and believes that all gestures of peace, even symbolic ones, are useful in the current context.