President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and First Lady Rosângela da Silva, Janja, had a meeting with Pope Francis, at the Vatican, this Wednesday (20). They arrived around 2:20 pm local time (9:20 am in Brasilia), posed for photos and had a private audience with the pontiff.
The main topic of conversation revolved around the War in Ukraine, in which both Lula and the leader of the Catholic Church are committed to promoting talks in search of peace.
After the meeting, the Holy See said, in a note, that there was a “positive exchange of views on the socio-political situation” and that topics of common interest were addressed, such as the fight against poverty, respect for indigenous peoples and the environment protection.
In the traditional exchange of gifts, Janja offered the pope an engraving by the artist from Pernambuco JF Borges and an image of Our Lady of Nazaré —Lula invited the pope to visit the Catholic procession of Círio de Nazaré, which takes place in October in Belém, in the For.
The pope, in turn, offered some items to Lula, among them a plaque in low relief in bronze with the inscription in Italian: “Peace is a fragile flower.” “We are in a time of war, and peace is very fragile”, said Francisco speaking in Spanish to the Brazilian president, shows a video shared by Lula on Twitter.
On social networks, Lula only said that he thanks the pontiff, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, for the audience held at the Vatican and for the “good talk about peace in the world”.
