ROME (Reuters] – Pope Francis led an International Prayer Service for Peace in Ukraine on Tuesday. He sat in a wheelchair in front of a Roman statue traditionally associated with peace.

The Pope, who was 85 years old at the time, visited Rome’s Santa Maria Maggiore basilica to pray before Mary Queen Of Peace. Pope Benedict XV commissioned it in 1918 as a request to God for an end to World War One.

Video links were used to connect worshippers at shrines in Syria, Iraq and Syria. Catholics from around the globe were also asked to join the prayer.

The service was attended by approximately 1,000 people, which included the Ukrainian ambassador at the Vatican as well as a few others wearing blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.

Francis asked Mary (in Christianity, the Mother of God) to help him “reconcile heart that is full of violence, vendetta, and hatred” before he prayed the rosary.

Francis has repeatedly appealed for peace in Ukraine after Russia invaded their neighbour, February. He is currently suffering from knee pains and has used a wheelchair the last few weeks.

He stopped at the church to meet other wheelchair users, such as a young boy with a Ukrainian flag on his neck, and he left.