VATICAN CITY (CBS) — Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Friday in the push to get kidnapped Ukrainian children out of Russia.
Klobuchar, who met with the pope for about 20 minutes along with a Ukrainian delegation, said it was an honor to meet him, calling him “a true moral force for peace and justice.”
The pope and Klobuchar were joined by some Ukrainian families whose children were kidnapped by Russian forces and have since been reunited with their families. More than 19,000 Ukrainian children were abducted by Russia during the invasion, according to Ukraine’s state-run program “Bring Kids Back.”
Klobuchar, Hennepin County’s former top prosecutor, has led on human trafficking issues in the Senate.
“Any path towards peace must start with returning the kidnapped children,” Klobuchar said. “A lot of this are children that are in bombed out areas, orphanages that were bombed out.”
About 1,800 of the 19,000-plus kidnapped Ukrainian children have been returned.
While at the Vatican on Friday, Klobuchar gave the pope a copy of the Senate resolution that honors the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in August at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis. The pope sent a “heartfelt condolence” to Archbishop Bernard Hebda, head of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in the shooting’s aftermath.
The resolution says everyone deserves to feel safe in their sacred places of worship and schools.
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