The chief adviser to the Ukrainian presidency opined on Friday that Pope Francis cannot mediate in the conflict in Ukraine because he is “pro-Russian”, after the pope mentioned the “Great Mother Russia” and its cultural heritage during a speech.
Last August, in an address to young Russian Catholics, Francis praised the legacy of the “Great Mother Russia.”
“Never forget this great legacy. You are the heirs of the great mother Russia, continue with her,” he declared at the time.
These comments by the pope, which he later insisted were strictly cultural, angered Kiev, which accused Francis of legitimizing Moscow’s past and present imperialist initiatives.
During a controversial interview with Oksana Kharkovska of the Ukrainian television station Channel 24 – published by the Vatican news website Il Sismograph – Mykhailo Podolyak, chief adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that the Pope cannot play a role in a mediation process after such comments. .
“The Pope cannot play a mediating role because he is pro-Russian and not credible,” the adviser said.
Faced with such a situation, Podolyak said Kiev rules out the possibility of Vatican mediation to resolve the military conflict on Ukrainian territory.
In the same interview, Podolyak also insinuated the existence of Russian investments in the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the Vatican Bank.
Last Monday, Francis, aboard the papal plane and returning to Rome after a visit to Mongolia, explained that he was not praising Russian imperialism but urging “the preservation of the heritage” and “the transmission of Russian culture ”.
“In a dialogue with young Russians, at the end I gave a message that I always repeat: take care of your heritage. It is the same thing I say everywhere: the need for a dialogue between grandparents and grandchildren. This was the message,” said he. clarified at the time.
The Pope added that he referred to “Great Russia” to underline his message, because “the Russian heritage is very good and very beautiful and you only have to think of the field of literature and music until you see the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky achieves’ which focuses on humanism.
Francisco acknowledged that the third part of his speech, in which he repeated the heritage speech, “may not have been very happy”, but indicated that “it was not a reference to the geographical plane, but rather a cultural one”.
“I said it because that’s what I studied in high school,” he added.
“I wanted to say that they should inherit their culture, that it cannot be bought anywhere else, and that Russian culture is beautiful and profound and will not remain frozen even though Russia has had dark moments,” he emphasized.
The Pope also emphasized that he was not thinking about “imperialism” due to the fact that “there are imperialisms that want to impose their own ideology and when culture is distilled and turned into ideology, it becomes poison.”
The pope’s words were criticized at the time by Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko, who believed they were defending “Russian imperialism.”
The military offensive that Moscow launched on Ukrainian territory on February 24, 2022 – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the majority of the international community, which has responded by supplying weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.
Source: DN
