ROME – As the world reels from a new tariff war imposed by United States President Donald Trump and as a ceasefire in Ukraine remains unstable, the Vatican is seeking engagement with Russia in an attempt to secure peace.

Some matters related to religious life and the state of the Catholic Church in Russia were also discussed.

In an April 4 statement, the Vatican said that earlier that day, a telephone conversation had been held between British Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Among the topics discussed, the Vatican said, was “the overall picture of world politics,” which includes a fresh wave of global instability caused by a new round of tariffs imposed by Trump, which have destabilized global markets to the brink of a recession, the likes of which has not been seen since 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Particular attention was paid, the statement said, to “the situation of the war in Ukraine and some initiatives aimed at stopping the military actions.”

The call between Gallagher and Lavrov came after a March 14 phone call between the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which the two addressed a variety of topics, including prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian children.

In April 2023, Pope Francis confirmed publicly that the Holy See had assisted in several prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia.

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, tapped as the pope’s special peace envoy for Ukraine in 2023, has made the return of Ukrainian children and prisoner exchanges, in particular, a priority in the Vatican’s mediation efforts, as well as addressing humanitarian needs on the ground.

Zuppi in this capacity made trips to Kyiv, Moscow, Washington D.C. and Beijing in the summer of 2023.

In a series of posts on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, following his call with Parolin in March, Zelenskyy said “an unconditional 30-day full interim ceasefire” are the first steps toward “a just and lasting peace.”

“Ukraine is ready to take these steps because the Ukrainian people want peace more than anyone. Meanwhile, the world sees how Russia is deliberately setting conditions that only complicate and drag out the process, as Russia is the only party that wants the war to continue and diplomacy to break down,” he said.

The phone call comes as negotiations continue for an initial ceasefire in Ukraine in which the United States has played a leading role.

Russia and Ukraine last month agreed to a limited truce barring rocket attacks against each other’s’ energy infrastructure, however, both parties have accused the other of violating the agreement, which was brokered by the United States despite a disastrous meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump at the White House March 11.

In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the call between Lavrov and Gallagher was requested by the Holy See, and touched on “ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis with the obligatory reliable elimination of its root causes.”

Last October, Zelenskyy met Pope Francis at the Vatican and asked for help in securing the release of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia, which is something pontiff has repeatedly spoken about as a point of success in negotiations.

Lavrov met with Parolin last September on the margins of a United Nations General Assembly in New York, presumably to discuss the war and potential paths to peace.

The Vatican has generally tried to walk a delicate line regarding the war in Ukraine, often condemning Russia’s invasion, while also questioning the wisdom of the ongoing armament of Ukraine and calling for negotiations to bring fighting to an end.

Pope Francis has at times drawn fire from Ukrainians, who believe his approach to Russia has been too soft, seeking to appease rather than condemn the invasion of a sovereign nation without cause, which they see is part of a strategy to slowly take Ukraine piece by piece, before expanding further into Europe.

It is possible that the Vatican’s current engagement with Russia is not only an attempt to bring the war to an end, but they might also be seeking, in discussing “the overall picture of world politics,” to draw on some of the goodwill they have generated with Russia in managing the chaos being unleashed by Trump and his broad and destabilizing imposition of tariffs.

Notably missing from the Vatican’s most recent efforts to engage both Russia and Ukraine in the past two months is Zuppi, who appears to have taken a back seat to mediation and attempts at negotiation.

Zuppi is currently tied up in Italy’s national synod process and is navigating the rejection of a text intended to outline the future of the Church in Italy at the close of the synod process, which is set to conclude this year.

Despite his current entanglement in the synod process, Zuppi as a special papal envoy for peace was never intended to take over permanent diplomatic apparatus in managing the Holy See’s actions and attitude regarding the war in Ukraine.

His was a short-lived trouble-shooting operation taken largely as a Hail Mary to see if he could make progress where others hadn’t, and the resumption by Gallagher and Parolin of engagement on the war is likely simply normality taking over again, as negotiations are reallocated to the Vatican’s diplomatic team.

In addition to the war, “some matters regarding religious life” and the situation of the Catholic Church in Russia were also discussed, the Vatican said, but did not provide details.

Russia’s small but multiethnic Latin Rite Catholic population sits at roughly 796,000, who belong to 396 parishes with a Moscow-based archdiocese and suffragan dioceses at Irkutsk, Novosibirsk and Saratov, according to the most recent Church data. They are served by roughly six bishops, 304 priests and 338 nuns.

Catholics in Russia, where church and politics are notoriously enmeshed, have walked a delicate line since the outbreak of the war in 2022, mostly remaining silent apart from some calls for peace.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen