The Vatican on Tuesday tried to defuse a row with Ukraine after Kiev accused Pope Francis of Russian “imperialist propaganda” over comments he made in a video message to young Russian Catholics.
Addressing the group, gathered at a Catholic church in St Petersburg, the pope said on August 25 that these young people are “children of great Russia, of great saints, of kings, of Peter the Great, of Catherine II , of a Russian people of great culture and great humanity,” as stated in a video shared online.
POPE FRANCIS CAUSES INTERNATIONAL STORM
The Pope told young Russian Catholics:
“Don’t forget your heredity. You are heirs of the great Russia – the great Russia of the saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, of Catherine II, the great Russian empire, civilized,… pic.twitter.com/9Tgr5kstSz
– Catholic Arena (@CatholicArena) August 28, 2023
“Never forget this great legacy. You are the heirs of the great Mother Russia,” the pope said.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said the pope’s language was “very unfortunate”.
“It is with this kind of imperialist propaganda, ‘spiritual food’ and the ‘necessity’ to save ‘great mother Russia’ that the Kremlin justifies the murder of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of hundreds of Ukrainian towns and villages.” said Monday night.
“It is most regrettable that the ideas of the great Russian powers, which are in fact the cause of Russia’s chronic aggressiveness, come consciously or unconsciously from the mouth of the Pope, whose mission, in our opinion, is precisely to open the eyes of the Russian youth on the destructive course of the current Russian leadership,” said the Ukrainian official.
The Vatican justifies the Pope’s statements
This Tuesday already Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni issued a statement saying the pope’s “impromptu” remarks were intended to “encourage young people to preserve and promote the positive in Russia’s great cultural and spiritual heritage.”
The comments were “certainly not (intended) to glorify imperial logic and government personalities,” he said.
Pope Francis regularly calls for peace in Ukraine, although in the first months after the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022, he was criticized for not naming Russia as the aggressor in this conflict.
The pope appointed a cardinal earlier this year to try to broker peace, and Francis’s envoy has since visited Moscow and Kiev.
The Vatican reported that the pope had called on young Russians to be “artisans of peace” and “sow seeds of reconciliation.”
The Kremlin in turn welcomed the pope’s remarks. “You know Russian history. This is very good,” said Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Source: DN
