The Vatican is increasing its public interventions in the hope of clarifying the scope of controversial remarks on the war in Ukraine by Pope Francis, who is not his first polemic on the subject.
The backpedaling exercise comes after the head of the Catholic Church indicated, in an interview with the Swiss channel RTS and partially broadcast on Saturday, that it is “courageous” to brandish the “white flag” and negotiate when “Things are not going well.”
The sentence, uttered in response to a question about the attitude that Kyiv should have towards Moscow, sparked an outcry from the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who saw it as a call for surrender.
The politician castigated the pope’s exit in covert words, saluting the religious present on the front line rather than those who try thousands of kilometers from Ukraine “to play virtual mediators between a person who wants to live and the someone else who wants to kill her.”
A Vatican spokesperson was quick to clarify, shortly after the controversy broke out, that the call for negotiation was valid for the two camps confronting each other in Ukraine and did not constitute a call for surrender for Kyiv .
In an interview with Corriere della Sera On Tuesday, Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin reiterated the message, adding that the responsibility for stopping the fighting rested “first and foremost with the aggressor.”
“Ill-advised exit”
On Wednesday, the Pope publicly denounced the “madness of war” by being saddened by the number of young people who are expected to die while avoiding commenting further on the possibility of negotiations relating to Ukraine.
Russia took the opportunity to hail the pope as “one of the rare political leaders with a truly strategic vision of global problems.”
Dominique Arel, a Ukraine specialist attached to the University of Ottawa, thinks that Pope Francis wanted to demonstrate humanism by emphasizing the impact of the war and the need to find a way to restore peace.
The evocation of the image of the “white flag” was, however, very poorly chosen, notes the analyst, since the gesture is usually associated with a surrender rather than a negotiation.
From a strategic point of view, the exit was also ill-advised, he said, since Ukraine would have absolutely nothing to gain from opening talks at this time when the country lacks military equipment and finds itself on the defensive.
“We negotiate when both parties are exhausted or when we are in a good position to do so,” notes Mr. Arel, who is concerned about the slowdown in American aid to Kyiv and the failures of European aid.
PHOTO ALESSANDRA TARANTINO, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Passers-by wave the Ukrainian flag outside a mass given by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
Tim Luckhurst, a professor at Durham University in Britain who has written on Vatican diplomacy, notes that Pope Francis risks finding himself “in sad company” if he refuses to side with Ukraine.
He draws a parallel on this subject with Pope Pius XII, who refused during the Second World War to loudly denounce the persecution of the Jews by Nazi Germany in the hope of protecting German Catholics.
“Anti-Western criticism”
Pope Francis, notes Mr. Luckhurst, has shown “great naivety” since the start of the conflict in Ukraine by refusing to see it as a clash “between democracy and totalitarianism” which will be decisive for the future of Europe. and beyond.
The religious leader, who is the first leader of the Catholic Church from the South, should take advantage of the platform he has in developing countries to convince them that a Russian victory in Ukraine would also have serious long-term consequences for them. , notes Mr. Luckhurst.
The pope also sparked controversy last year by inviting his audience during a visit to St. Petersburg not to forget the legacy of the “Russian Empire” and Peter the Great, which is often mentioned by Vladimir Putin in an attempt to justify the invasion of Ukraine.
The Kremlin also welcomed the intervention, noting that the pope shared the same vision of history as the Russian government.
The head of the Catholic Church also declared in 2022 interviews that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stemmed in part from NATO’s advances on the European continent and “the attitude of the West », an analysis again echoing that of Moscow.
In an analysis published last year, POLITICO noted that the pope’s outings on the war in Ukraine could be inspired by traditional “anti-Western critiques” of developing countries and the fact that more than two-thirds of Catholics now live in these regions.
They could also partly reflect, the media noted, the pope’s efforts to get closer to the Russian Orthodox Church, which operates hand in hand with the regime of Vladimir Putin.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one of the things he’s considering… The pope should not try to expand his influence at the expense of Ukrainian soldiers who are dying to defend democracy,” Mr. Luckhurst warns.
What there is to know
The Vatican has been trying for several days to quell the controversy sparked by statements by Pope Francis on the war in Ukraine which were understood by Kyiv as a call for surrender.
Several representatives of the Catholic Church returned to the subject, emphasizing that the call to “raise the white flag” concerned both parties.
Pope Francis has sparked further controversy with his comments regarding the war in Ukraine since the conflict began.