Pope Francis’ views on Russia and its invasion of Ukraine are alienating many Catholics in Central and Eastern Europe, who say the pontiff underestimates Russia’s historic expansionism in the region and the threat it poses. represents today.
Pope Francis’ views on Russia and its invasion of Ukraine are alienating many Catholics in Central and Eastern Europe, who say the pontiff underestimates Russia’s historic expansionism in the region and the threat it poses. represents today.
The pope’s recent praise of the 18th-century Russian empire that subjugated Ukraine has sparked outrage far beyond Ukraine itself.
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The pope’s recent praise of the 18th-century Russian empire that subjugated Ukraine has sparked outrage far beyond Ukraine itself.
“Central Europeans – people from Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic – are shocked,” said Michal Klosowski, a Catholic journalist in Warsaw and author of a recent book on Francis. , referring to the pope’s recent comments. “The Pope has no idea about the history of Central Europe and the history of the Russian Empire. The nations of Central Europe were enslaved by the Russians for many centuries.”
In a speech delivered by video to a gathering of young Russian Catholics in late August, Francis called the Russian empire under Tsars Peter the Great and Catherine the Great a “great, enlightened empire, endowed with great culture and great humanity”.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, said Francis’ words had caused great pain among the faithful and great disappointment within Ukrainian society as a whole.
Shevchuk, who knew the pope when they were both bishops in Buenos Aires, said in June that Francis’ background helps explain his conciliatory stance toward Russia because “one of the inherent characteristics of Argentine culture is a deep distrust of the North – that is, the United States and Europe.
The pope told reporters on September 4 that he had urged young Russians to embrace their cultural heritage, exemplified by 19th-century writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. “I wasn’t thinking of imperialism when I said that. I spoke about culture, and the transmission of culture is never imperial,” Francis said.
Two days later, leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church met with Francis at the Vatican for what Shevchuk described in a statement as a “frank conversation” in which they “expressed pain, suffering and a certain disappointment of the Ukrainian people.”
Shevchuk said he told the pope that statements from himself and the Vatican since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have been “painful and difficult for the Ukrainian people, who are currently bleeding for his dignity and independence.
The pope has often lamented the suffering of Ukrainians since the start of the war, but avoided explicitly blaming Russia or President Vladimir Putin for the conflict, and suggested that it was caused by the enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Eastern Europe.
The Vatican has sought to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, although neither kyiv nor Moscow have expressed interest in mediation. The pope told foreign diplomats in May that the Vatican’s neutrality in conflicts was a diplomatic asset in mediation efforts and did not mean ethical neutrality.
This, however, did not satisfy Eastern European Catholics.
“We would have liked the pope to unequivocally side with Ukraine,” Shevchuk told Ukrainian media in June. “We would have liked him to clearly say who was the aggressor and who was the victim.”
Francis’ remarks on NATO enlargement struck a chord in Lithuania, which was under Soviet rule until 1991 and joined the U.S.-led alliance in 2004, said Irena Vaisvilaite, former Ambassador of Lithuania to the Holy See.
“It was really thought that the pope was repeating Russian propaganda,” Vaisvilaite said, adding that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the common feeling in Lithuania was that “if there is no If it weren’t for NATO, it would be us.
Vaisvilaite said Francis’ position was disappointing for predominantly Catholic Lithuania, compared with St. John Paul II’s strong opposition to the Soviet empire: “The general public, I would say, mainly because of the memory of John Paul II was waiting for the pope. to be on the right side, to be biased” when it comes to Ukraine, she said.
In majority-Catholic Croatia, where many compare Ukraine’s predicament to their own struggle with Serbia in the 1990s, Francis’ approach to the current conflict has been compared unfavorably to John Paul’s moral clarity II, said the Rev. Ante Vuckovic, a professor at Catholic University. Faculty of Theology of the University of Split.
“John Paul II knew how to distinguish the aggressor and the victim,” Vuckovic said. “We were surprised by the absence of this distinction on the part of François.”
Some Croatian Catholics nevertheless continue to view Francis as “the best spokesperson for Christianity” because of his concern for refugees, the poor and the environment, Vuckovic said.
In Poland, Francis’ position on the war has inspired an unusual consensus between the conservative and more liberal wings of the Church, said Tomasz Terlikowski, a prominent Warsaw-based Catholic writer and commentator.
“The most conservative Polish Catholics have long viewed Francis’ actions with great suspicion,” Terlikowski said, while progressives “have often looked at Francis with high hopes, and his position on the war in Ukraine has seriously disappointed them “.
The pope’s stance on Ukraine alone is unlikely to lead many Polish Catholics to leave the Church, said Edward Augustyn, a journalist at the Krakow-based Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.
“People who believe and practice regularly may disagree with it, but that does not prevent them from remaining in the Church,” Augustyn said. “The pope is not an authority on politics, diplomacy or Eastern European history. So for believers, his words will not interfere with their faith.
Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com
