Pope Francis not helping Ukraine peace efforts

On August 25, three days into the 10th Russian Youth Day, Pope Francis appeared via interactive livestream before 400 young people gathered at St. Catherine’s Basilica in St. Petersburg. That was probably for the best because when his attendance — virtual as it may have been — was announced, both he and the Vatican were loudly and roundly criticized.

Of course they were. The event, which is organized by the Church and was first held in 2000, took place as Russia’s war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine rages on. Since invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has faced near-total international isolation, while its people and leaders live under stiff economic sanctions. In this environment, any decision by any leader to engage with Russia in any way that could appear as normalizing relations with the nation is cause for howls of protest.

And, indeed, the online appearance of the Pope has been embarrassing for the Pontiff and the Church. Yes, he was addressing young Catholics — pilgrims who could not travel to Lisbon, Portugal, for World Youth Day in August thanks to international restrictions — but he also sent a message of appeasement to the Russian establishment. Besides being naive about the optics of such a decision, it complicates the Pope’s efforts to broker a peaceful resolution to the war.

Francis urged the young Russians to be “sowers of seeds of reconciliation” and to “have the courage to replace fears with dreams.” But at the end of his prepared remarks, the Pope spoke off the cuff and appealed to the audience to “not forget your heri-

by Dario Pio Muccilli, EU correspondent

tage. You are heirs of the great Russia — the great Russia of saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, Catherine II, the great, educated Russian Empire of so much culture, of so much humanity. Never give up this heritage.” He then added, “You are descendants of the great Mother Russia, step forward with it.”

Naturally, this appeal to Russian patriotism brought immediate condemnation from Ukraine. Kyiv didn’t directly attack the Pope for his attending the event. Rather, it was all the “Mother Russia” talk and celebration of figures and rulers in Russian history who have pursued war of occupations in the region generally and Ukraine specifically.

“This is the kind of imperialist propaganda, ‘spiritual bonds’ and the ‘need’ to save ‘Great Mother Russia’ which the Kremlin uses to justify the murder of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of hundreds of Ukrainian towns and villages,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.

The back and forth continued in the Italian newspaper Avvenire, press organ of the Church. Monsignor Paolo Pezzi, Archbishop of Moscow, expressed in an interview a deep defense of the Pope’s historical references, attempting to explain how there was no thought directed to Putin or current Russian politics. He merely intended, as the newspaper put it, to inspire confidence in young people in line with what the Holy Father always repeats, and which he reiterated: the past it is our wealth, our identity.”

Monsignor Pezzi is an experienced Church man with diplomatic skills, and he’s trying to put out a diplomatic fire.

But it’s clear Francis — who is as savvy as anyone — made those references to appease the Kremlin, which has put valorizing Russian history at the center of its ultra-nationalist narrative.

In 2006, Putin ideologue Vladislav Surkov gave shape to the Russian czar’s political ideas, coining the term “sovereign democracy” to justify the nation’s actions, including treating as “unfriendly” anyone who doubts or questions Russia’s “democratic” regime. Since then, Russian history has served a vital role in legitimizing the nation’s claim to the authority and dignity of being a “big power.” All you have to do is look at Putin holding court while flanked by a statue of Catherine the Great to know appreciate the cult-like devotion he has to Russia’s past conquests.

The Pope is by no means a Russian ultra-nationalist. But he knows that if he wants to negotiate with Moscow it’s necessary to show them the socalled due respect. Still, he’s in a trap of Putin’s making. Any step toward the Kremlin would halt any movement toward Kyiv, and vice versa.

Nor is the Pope’s goodwill cynical. There is surely a history haunting Francis, of the evil tyrant in Rome coming into a conflict and either worsening it or turning a blind eye to its worst deprivations. But there is recent evidence of the Vatican’s true desire for peace — recent here being relative; the Church is thousands of years old. The Vatican was the main international actor advocating a peaceful resolution to World War I. In World War II, it helped negotiate the best conditions for the occupation of Italy. It came out against the conflicts in Iraq pursued by both George H.W. and George W.