The Vatican tried Tuesday to defuse the dispute with Ukraine after Pope Francis extolled the heritage of “great Russia” in a speech to young Russian Catholics.
“You are children of great Russia, of great saints, of kings, of Peter the Great, of Catherine II, of a Russian people of great humanity. Never forget this great legacy. You are heirs of the great mother Russia, carry on with this . “, the Pope said by videoconference to a group of young people gathered in a church in St. Petersburg.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko called the pope’s language “very unfortunate.”
“It is with this kind of imperialist propaganda that the Kremlin justifies the murder of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of hundreds of Ukrainian cities and towns. From Russia, they consciously or unconsciously come from the mouth of the Pope, whose mission, in our opinion, is precisely to open the eyes of the Russian youth to the current destructive course of the Russian leadership,” Oleg Nikolenko replied on Monday night.
In defense of the pope, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis’ “off-the-cuff” comments were aimed “to encourage young Russians to preserve and promote the positive of Russia’s great cultural and spiritual heritage. And certainly not to exalt the imperialist logic and the personalities of the Government”.
Pope Francis regularly makes calls for peace in Ukraine, though in the first months after the Russian invasion he received criticism for failing to single out Moscow as the aggressor. Earlier this year, he appointed a high-ranking cardinal to try to broker a peace who has since visited Moscow and kyiv.
Source: TSF
