R.P.Ts. CHIDES POPE FRANCIS FOR INACCURATE PRESENTATION OF HIS CONVERSATION WITH PATRIARCH KIRILL
The Russian Orthodox Church (RPTs) regards the presentation by Roman Pope Francis of his recent conversation with Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill about the situation
concerning Ukraine as inaccurate.
"It causes regret that a month and a half after the conversation with Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose an incorrect tone for relating the contents of this conversation. Such statements can hardly facilitate the establishment of a constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, which is especially needed at the present time," an explanation published Wednesday by the communications service of the Department for External Church Relations of the RPTs says.
Yesterday in an interview with the publication Corriere della Sera, the pontiff said the following: "I conversed with Kirill for 40 minutes on the Zoom application. For the first 20 minutes, he explained to me, while looking at notes, the reasons that provoked the war. I responded to him that I did not understand anything in that. We are not civil servants and we should be using not the language of politics but the language of Christ. . . . We should seek the path toward peace and toward cessation of military actions. The patriarch cannot be transformed into an acolyte of Russian authorities. I had planned to meet with him in Jerusalem on 14 June. But now he also agrees that it is necessary to suspend these plans, since otherwise a meeting could be incorrectly interpreted."
In its turn, the RPTs declared that in the conversation on 16 March, the patriarch described for the pontiff how the conflict began in 2014 with the events on the Maidan in Kiev, which resulted in a change in the Ukrainian government. He called the special attention of his interlocutor to the events in Odessa and their consequences: "There was a peaceful rally by Russian-speaking residents in this city, who were defending their right to use their native language and culture. This peaceful meeting was attacked by representatives of nazi groupings who began beating the demonstrators with their fists. People began taking refuge in a nearby building of the House of Trade Unions. And at that moment something horrific happened: this building was locked and then set on fire. People tried to save themselves by jumping from the second and third floors and they, of course, were injured. Those who approached the windows and decided not to jump were shot from below. We observed all this on television, practically live. This horrific lesson of Odessa influenced the decision of residents of southeast Ukraine to defend their rights."
Further Patriarch Kirill recalled that at the end of the soviet era, Russia received the assurance that NATO would not advance a single inch in the eastward direction. However this promise was broken and even the former soviet Baltic republics became members of NATO. As a result, a most dangerous situation developed: the borders of NATO advanced to 130 kilometers from St. Petersburg and flight times for rockets were just a few minutes. In the event that NATO should admit Ukraine, then the flight time to Moscow also would be a few minutes. Russia could not and cannot in any way permit this.
"Of course, this situation causes me great pain," the patriarch said in concluding the conversation. "My flock is on both sides of the confrontation, and these are mostly Orthodox people. Some of those who are confronting belong to your flock (the Roman Catholic Church—I.F.). Therefore, abstracting from the geopolitical component, I would like to pose the question of how we and how our church can influence the state of affairs. How can we cooperate in pacifying those who are fighting, with a single goal: to achieve the strengthening of peace and justice? It is very important in current circumstances to avoid further escalation.
As noted in the message of the RPTs, Pope Francis' response was presented accurately by the Vatican news service in a report on 16 March: "Pope Francis thanked the patriarch for the meeting, prompted by a desire to point out—as pastors of their people—the path to peace and to pray for granting peace and a ceasefire." The Holy Father agreed with the patriarch that the church must use, not the lexicon of politics, but the language of Jesus Christ. "We are pastors of one and the same holy people who believe in God, in the Holy Trinity, and in the Most Holy Mother of God, and therefore we must join in striving to help the world, to support the suffering, to seek the path of peace, and to stop the fire."
As noted in the same report, "the sides emphasized the exceptional importance of continuing the negotiation process," the RPTs recalled. (tr. by PDS, posted 8 May 2022)
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