As fighting rages on in Ukraine, the leaders of nearby countries are turning to the Vatican to keep the war with Russia from spilling over into their territory.<\/p>\n
This week, representatives from Latvia and Slovakia visited the Vatican. These meetings had been planned for months, but now they coincide at a critical moment in the region. <\/p>\n
The first was with Slovak Prime Minister, Eduard Heger. He visited the Pope to thank him for his trip to Slovakia in September 2021, and presented him with a bell with the image of Saints Cyril and Methodius.<\/p>\n
The Pope gave him a bas-relief of the Our Lady of the Stairs, a popular icon in Rome in which the Virgin Mary holds the child Jesus in her arms<\/p>\n
The Pope told him that, by becoming incarnate in a child, God became fragile and in need of his mother.<\/p>\n
'This one I have in my office because it touches me very much.'<\/em><\/p>\n As usual, the Pope gave him the most important writings of his pontificate, and his message of peace for 2022.<\/p>\n 'I signed it for you today.'<\/em><\/p>\n Latvia's Foreign Minister, Edgars Rinkevics, then met with Pope Francis. His country shares over 100 miles of a border with Russia.<\/p>\n Rinkevics gave him the speech he read during the Pope's visit to Riga, Latvia in 2018, along with a letter from Lativia's President.<\/p>\n For his part, Pope Francis gave him a medallion in which the angel of peace defeats the angel of war.<\/p>\n 'It says that there is a world of solidarity and peace founded on justice.'<\/p>\n A gift that the Latvian liked.<\/p>\n 'This is most appropriate in the current circumstances'.<\/em><\/p>\n Pope Francis then said goodbye to the foreign minister, and asked him to pray for him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n RM<\/p>\n TR: JM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 14, 2022. Slovakia's Prime Minister and Latvia's Foreign Minister both met with the Pope at the Vatican.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/f7KDtohMCi0","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/blettoniaslovacchiaeng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/blettoniaslovacchiaint.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}