Don't be `Putin's altar boy,' Pope warns

Pope Francis warned the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church not to be “Putin's altar boy” and justify the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine.

In a Tuesday interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said he spoke with Patriarch Kirill, a key supporter of Vladimir Putin and his war, for 40 minutes over Zoom. During the March 16 conversation, Francis said, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding.

“I listened and then told him: I don't understand anything about this,” Francis said. “Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.”

Then, Francis, who has repeatedly called for an end to the war, went one step further and challenged Kirill not to follow along with the actions of the Russian president.

“The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy,” the pope said.

The Russian Orthodox Church, in a statement released Wednesday, responded, “It's regrettable that a month and a half after the conversation with Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose the wrong tone to convey the content of this conversation.”

The statement said that Kirill had sought to help the Pope see the pro-invasion point of view, repeating Russian claims about attacks on Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Kirill then told Francis that “promises were not kept” about NATO not expanding after the end of the Soviet era.

The statement noted that “the Pope said, in agreement with the Patriarch, that `the Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.' ”

Kirill, 75, was elected in 2009 as patriarch of the influential Russian Orthodox Church, which has more than 100 million followers. Orthodox Christianity is the dominant faith in both Russia and Ukraine — but since the war the church has contributed to a rift between Moscow and Kyiv, as Kirill has dug his heels into prowar rhetoric.

Francis also noted that he has requested a meeting with Putin, expressing readiness to come to Moscow for a meeting with Putin. “We have not yet had an answer, and we are still insisting,” the Pope said.