Vatican diplomacy failures. Why Dad Roman Francis does not call Russia an aggressor

It was unfair," - so the Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented on Francis, said on August 24 after the overall audience was completed. Initially, the Pope decided to pray for Ukraine, and later stated that the wine for the war lies on all sides of the conflict.

In addition, he mentioned the death of the daughter of the ideologist of the Russian world Alexander Dugin Daria (her car exploded in the Moscow region on August 20, and the organization of the murder of Russia accused Ukrainian special services). "I think of a poor girl who was blown up by a bomb, located under the seat of a car in Moscow. Innocent is paid for the war," he said.

After these words, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv was invited by the Vatican Ambassador to Ukraine Archbishop Visaldas Kulbobas. According to the press service, he was expressed a deep disappointment with the words of the pontiff.

They say why Francis suddenly mentioned in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war the death of a Russian citizen in Russia, to which Ukraine has nothing to do, and where his words of pity about specific victims of war, Ukrainian children, 376 of whom were killed at the hands of Russian occupiers. Every time Francis speaks of Ukraine after February 24, 2022, Ukrainians shudder and disappoint.

Pope Roman, who is used to Ukraine in Ukraine (the authority of the Pope Institute has improved significantly after arriving in Ukraine John Paul II in 2001), unexpectedly for many does not call Russia the country's aggressor, does not see the victim in Ukraine, but pronounces many common phrases Peace and reconciliation. At least that's how the inhabitant treats them. The Pope tries to say that the suffering of Ukrainians does not differ from the suffering of the Russians.

To mention at least passionate Friday on the eve of Easter, when two women — - Russian and Ukrainian - were invited to carry a cross as a symbol of reconciliation. And it hints: NATO activity can cause conflict. "We have to move away from the usual" red hat model. "The Red Riding Hood was good, and the wolf is bad. There is no metaphysical good and evil here. Something global appears, with elements that are very intertwined," the pontiff said in June.

After that, the Russian press wrote: "The Russians were incapable of the Pope after his words about NATO. " Similar words and actions of the pontiff are criticized not only in Ukraine but also beyond. In neighboring Poland, a country in which 80-90% of citizens consider themselves faithful to Roman Catholics and close to the Vatican (during traditional audiences of Poles on St. Peter's Square, there is always a lot), also criticize Francis. "St.

Francis has probably now broken his heart because the Pope took his name," said the former Prime Minister of Poland and the former President of the European Council Donald Tusk. At the beginning of a full -scale invasion of Russia into the territory of Ukraine, there was a hope that the Vatican and personally the Pope could take an intermediary mission - the negotiator to terminate the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. It was this in March that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked.

Shortly after this conversation, Focus recorded an interview with one of the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church by Edward Coffee. He said that Zelensky's contact with the Holy Father is a good sign, they say, the holy throne really takes a position in this war on the side of Ukraine. "Knowing Pope Francis, I can hope that he will decide to come at any moment in Ukraine, even the most difficult for us.

And I believe that it can be a moment when not only our enemy will be forced to suspend the shelling of innocent people, but also involves world community. I think that the main emphasis of the Vatican is now to awaken the world community. Because these condolences, sanctions are still empty words, "Kava said. It was on the Pope that the wives of the Azov regiment hoped, who visited the Vatican in May, on the eve of the so -called evacuation from Azovstal.

Then the Pope promised to pray and do everything possible. "We have to move away from the usual" red hat model. "The Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf is bad. There is no metaphysical good and evil here. Something global appears, with elements that are very intertwined," the pontiff said in June. In March, coffee, answering mediation questions to end the war, said that the Vatican has been trying to help in 2014. But the problem is that there is no one to talk to the Russian Federation.

Even if there are any promises on their part, they are recalled, changed, manipulated in a very short time. The Vatican wants to talk to the side that adheres to the word, "he explained. The fact that Pope would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and talk about Ukraine after February 24, wrote all the central Italian newspapers.

In May, in May The Corriere Della Sera's newspaper Ponotifice said that three times in three months tried to agree on such a visit with Moscow, but did not receive an answer. Some of the experts were confident: it was important for Francis to meet first with the President with President Putin. And three times. All meetings were outside Russia. No modern pontiff has yet to visit Russia. Then at the closed door.

The Holy See Printing Service reported that they discussed the situation in Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. On the eve of the meeting, the assistant of Russian President Yuri Ushakov called the Kremlin and the Vatican positions "close or practically the same" in the fight against terrorism and religious extremism.

At the same time, Ushakov mentioned the "historical meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyril in Harbor in 2016" (after Russia's invasion of the Donbas and annexation of Crimea) and "a new level of relations of two churches" (then signed the Havana Declaration, the document including the document Ukraine: Russia is not mentioned as an aggressor country, and the so-called UOC MP Patriarch Cyril called "our church in Ukraine").

After February 24, 2020, Francis and Cyril spoke with the help of a phone. In June, according to the press services, more than forty minutes. Personally, Francis wanted to meet with Cyril in September in Kazakhstan during an interfaith conference. Experts say that the Vatican diplomacy is to never call the name of the aggressor to remain a possible partner in dialogue, and the value of neutrality is to emphasize that every war brings pain and suffering to all parties of the conflict.

But this principle does not work in Ukraine. And this in the Vatican cannot or do not want to understand, because it is known that priests from Ukraine were in the Vatican and tried to explain Francis, how this war is different from other conflicts. Doctor of Theology, researcher of the Berlin Center of Eastern European and International Studies by Regina Elsner names three reasons why. The first - the Vatican lacks experience in Eastern Europe, namely in Russia.

Because not only the Vyryany Ukrainians, but also the Vyryany Poles expressed deep disappointment that the Vatican supports the Russian myth of NATO's pressure on Russia. The second - the Vatican needs allies of the fight against liberalism. The Holy See does not pay much attention to the topic of lack of unity within the Orthodox Church and in the Ukrainian department. For him, there is a church that was after the Cold War, one that needs to be helped to be one.

After the collapse of the Union, the relations of the churches became more restrained-they began to create Catholic dioceses, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church emerged from the underground. "Relations began to improve only for Pope Benedict XVI, when the leadership of both churches showed an important interest: to protect conservative Christian values ​​from liberalism. The culmination was the meeting of Pope Francis and Patriarch Cyril in Harbor in 2016," says Regina Elsner.

The third reason is that the Vatican ignores Russian propaganda and does not criticize the information provided, but actually supports the idea voiced by the Kremlin about the war in Ukraine. At least this happens in the public field. Although it is difficult to imagine that the Vatican can only act in public. For example, according to focus, Pope Francis was going to come to Ukraine at Azovstal and asked his representatives to agree on this visit. But he never happened. The reason is unknown.

According to one version, Russia did not want to guarantee safety, the other - the Ukrainian side was also not very interested, as there were already negotiations on security guarantees while leaving Azovstal. Now Francis is unlikely to meet in the near future and Putin - yet it is not about it, as with Patriarch Cyril. The latter abolished the announced trip to Kazakhstan for a congress of world religions. Why it is unknown.