The 85-year-old Francis made the journey regardless of what seemed to be an aggravation of the strained knee ligaments which have enormously diminished his mobility all yr. Francis struggled to stroll via the aisle of the plane through the 6.5-hour flight from Rome, and he appeared drained and in ache as he limped closely along with his cane, ceding to a wheelchair for many occasions as soon as on the town. Medical doctors have instructed him that in the interim, any additional journey — to Kyiv, for instance — is out of the query.

Talking upon his arrival to authorities authorities and diplomats gathered on the Qazaq live performance corridor, Francis praised Kazakhstan’s dedication to range and dialogue and its progress from many years of Stalinist repression, when Kazakhstan was the vacation spot of a whole lot of hundreds of Soviet deportees.

Francis mentioned the nation, which borders Russia to the north and China to the east and is dwelling to some 150 ethnic teams and 80 languages, now has a “elementary position to play” in serving to ease conflicts elsewhere.

Recalling that St. John Paul II visited Kazakhstan simply days after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults within the U.S., Francis mentioned he was visiting “in the middle of the mindless and tragic conflict that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine.”

“I’ve come to echo the plea of all those that cry out for peace, which is the important path to growth for our globalized world,” he mentioned.

Directing himself at international superpowers, he mentioned increasing efforts at diplomacy and dialogue have been ever extra essential. “And those that maintain higher energy on the earth have higher accountability with regard to others, particularly these international locations most vulnerable to unrest and battle.”

“Now could be the time to cease intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs,” he mentioned.

Tokayev didn’t point out Ukraine particularly in his ready remarks to Francis. However talking in English, he referred normally phrases about humanity being on an “fringe of an abyss as geopolitical tensions escalate, international financial system suffers, and mushrooming spiritual and ethnic intolerance turns into the ‘new regular.’”

Kazakhstan has needed to stroll a skinny line with the conflict. Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions towards Russia whereas making an attempt to keep up shut ties with Moscow, an essential financial companion and ally. On the identical time, Tokayev refused to acknowledge the Russia-backed separatist “folks’s republics” in Ukraine which Moscow acknowledged days earlier than invading Ukraine.

Essentially the most noteworthy facets of Francis’ go to to Kazakhstan would possibly boil all the way down to the missed alternatives with each Russia and China: Francis was alleged to have met with the top of the Russian Orthodox Church on the sidelines of the convention. However Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the conflict in Ukraine, canceled his journey final month.

Francis can be going to be within the Kazakh capital similtaneously Chinese language President Xi Jinping, who’s making his first overseas journey since early within the coronavirus pandemic.

The Vatican and China haven’t had diplomatic relations for a half century and the timing is considerably tense, with the 2 sides finalizing the renewal of a controversial deal over the nominations of Catholic bishops in China.

The Vatican has mentioned there have been no present plans for any assembly between Xi and Francis whereas they have been each in Kazakhstan and the Kazakh deputy overseas minister, Roman Vassilenko mentioned he didn’t consider there was time in Xi’s schedule to satisfy with Francis.

Requested concerning the chance en path to Nur-Sultan, Francis mentioned: “I don’t have any information about this. However I’m all the time able to go to China.”

The interfaith congress, now in its seventh iteration, is a showpiece of Kazakhstan’s overseas coverage and a mirrored image of its personal multicultural and multiethnic inhabitants that has lengthy been touted as a crossroads between East and West.

When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s range whereas recalling its darkish previous underneath Stalinist repression: Whole villages of ethnic Poles have been deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan starting in 1936, and the Soviet authorities deported a whole lot of hundreds of ethnic Germans, Chechens and different accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan throughout World Struggle II. Lots of the deportees’ descendants remained and a few of them make up the nation’s Catholic neighborhood, which solely numbers about 125,000 in a rustic of almost 19 million.

Sophia Gatovskaya, a parishioner at Our Girl Of Perpetual Assist Cathedral within the capital, mentioned she attended that first papal go to and that it has borne fruits to at the present time.

“It was really superb. And after this go to, we’ve got peace and tolerance in our republic. We have now a variety of nationalities in Kazakhstan, and all of us stay collectively. And we count on the identical from this go to (of Pope Francis) that we are going to have peace in our republic. And we very a lot count on that the conflict in Ukraine will finish.”

Related Press faith protection receives assist via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content material.