Status: 05/03/2022 12:08 p.m
Pope Francis has criticized the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Cyril I, for his stance on the Ukraine war. Francis said he should not make himself “Putin’s acolyte”.
The Pope has criticized the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and his role in the Ukraine war. Cyril I publicly supported the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and thus caused irritation in parts of the Orthodox Churches.
In March, Francis said he spoke to Cyril I via video for 40 minutes. For the first 20 minutes, Cyril I explained the reasons for the war with a map in his hand, Francis told the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
“I listened to him and said: ‘I don’t understand anything about that. Brother, we are not state clerics and are not allowed to speak the language of politics, we have to speak the language of Jesus’. The patriarch cannot make himself Putin’s altar boy.”
Francis ready to travel to Moscow
Francis is ready to go to Moscow to urge Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine. He informed the Russian President of this in mid-March, but has not yet received an answer, he told the newspaper. They keep asking, “but I’m afraid that Putin can’t and doesn’t want to have this meeting at the moment,” the Pope continued.
A visit to Ukraine is not planned at the moment. “I feel that I shouldn’t go. First I have to go to Moscow, first I have to meet Putin,” Francis said. However, he is only a priest who only does what a priest can do – “if only Putin opened the door”. When asked if Cyril I could persuade Putin to open the door, the pope shook his head, according to the newspaper.
A meeting with Cyril in Jerusalem was planned for June 14. At the moment, however, both agree that this would be an ambivalent sign.
Pope repeats criticism of arms deliveries
Without fundamentally questioning the right to self-defense, the Pope repeated his doubts about arms deliveries to Ukraine. “I don’t know how to answer, I’m too far from the question of whether it’s justified to supply the Ukrainians.”
It was clear that weapons would be tried there. The Russians now know that their armored vehicles are of little use “and are already thinking about other things”. Wars are fought to test weapons that have been produced.
In the conversation, the Pope compared, among other things, the brutality in Ukraine with that of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.