San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Pope urges peace, not politics
Both he, Russia’s Kirill stress importance of negotiations to reach a cease-fire
ROME — Pope Francis rejected the concept of a “just war” and stressed the need for peace in a video call Wednesday with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the first known communication between the two Christian leaders since the start of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The call was all the more remarkable because Francis and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow have only met once — at the Havana airport in 2016 — in what was then the first encounter between a pope and Russian patriarch in over 1,000 years.
A Vatican statement said both men agreed that the church “must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus” and stressed the importance of negotiations to reach a cease-fire.
“Those who pay the price for the war are the people, it is the Russian soldiers and the people who are bombed and die,” the Vatican quoted Francis as saying.
Wednesday’s call came just hours after Francis evoked the specter of a “final catastrophe” of an atomic war that would extinguish humanity. While Francis didn’t reference Ukraine explicitly in that part of his speech during his weekly audience, he did elsewhere call for prayers for Ukraine and for God to protect its children and forgive those who make war.
Francis’ long-term goal to improve relations with Kirill and avoid antagonizing the Russian Orthodox Church had explained his initially tepid responses to the Feb. 24 start of the Russian invasion. He has since stepped up his denunciations, demanding “an end to this massacre,” and labeling the invasion an “unacceptable armed aggression.”
But he has not condemned Russia by name for the onslaught or publicly urged Kirill to use his influence with Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand an end to the war, as other Catholic bishops and Orthodox leaders have done. The Vatican has a tradition of quiet, behindthe-scenes diplomacy and tends to not call out aggressors.
In fact, Francis’ comment about Russian soldiers paying the price for the war marked the first time he had publicly referenced Russia.
Kirill has said he appreciated the Holy See’s moderate tone.
Kirill, though, has sent signals justifying the war by describing it as part of a struggle against sin and pressure from liberal foreigners to hold “gay parades” as the price of admission to their ranks. He has blamed the West and a fellow Orthodox patriarch for fomenting enmity between Ukraine and Russia.
According to the website of Kirill’s church, he and Francis spoke about the situation in Ukraine, particularly the humanitarian aspects, and efforts by both churches to overcome the problems.