by Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, April 16 (Reuters) – Pope Francis condemned cruelty in the war in Ukraine on Saturday at an Easter Vigil, which he attended but did not preside over, possibly due to a leg pain that forced him to reduce his activities.
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the Ukrainian town of Melitopol, detained last month by Russian forces and later released in a prisoner exchange, was present at the service.
The 85-year-old pope delivered his homily from a large white chair where he remained seated, before stepping away from the text he had prepared to mention the presence of Fedorov, his family and three Ukrainian parliamentarians in the audience, and talk about “the darkness of war, of cruelty.”
“We are all praying for you and with you. We are praying because there is so much suffering. We can only give you (..) our prayers and tell you ‘courage, we accompany you'”, he he says.
The Vatican added that Pope Francis met privately with the Ukrainian delegation before the mass. (Gilles Guillaume for the French version)