Pope Francis has been sharply criticized by Ukrainian authorities for some recent remarks they believe endorse Russian imperialism in the midst of Moscow’s aggression against its western neighbor.
During a video chat with about 400 Catholic teenagers from St. Petersburg held on August 25, the pontiff exhorted them to be proud of their ancestry.
“You are heirs of the great Russia — the great Russia of saints, of kings, the great Russia of Peter the Great, Catherine II, the great, enlightened Russian Empire of so much culture, of so much humanity,” he said. “Never give up this heritage.”
The final, impromptu paragraph was reportedly delivered at the end of an hour-long video lecture in which Francis exhorted young Russians to strive toward peace – inviting them “to sow seeds of reconciliation” and “be artisans of peace in the midst of so many conflicts”.
The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, stated in a statement that Francis’ praise of Peter the much and Catherine the Great had created “great pain and apprehension.” The two rulers enlarged the Russian Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries, seizing sections of modern Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin has recalled their heritage to legitimize his invasion last year.
The head of the local Catholic clergy expressed “fear that these words will be understood by some as an encouragement of this nationalism and imperialism which is the real cause of the war in Ukraine”.
Equally critical of Francis’ comments was Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, which through spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said called the Holy Father’s words “very unfortunate”.
ANSA/YURI KOCHETKOV
In contrast, the Kremlin complimented the pope on his “very gratifying” remarks. “The pontiff knows Russian history and this is very good,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. “It has deep roots, and our heritage is not limited to Peter (the Great) or Catherine, it is much more ancient.”
The Holy See hastened to specify that the pope’s words were in no way justificatory toward the Russian invasion, which the head of Catholicism has repeatedly condemned over the past year and a half. Matteo Bruni, the spokesman for the Vatican, said that Francis was merely praising the excellent qualities of Russia’s spiritual and cultural heritage.
Francis “certainly didn’t want to exalt imperialistic logic or government personalities, who were cited to indicate certain historic periods of reference,” Bruni said in a statement.
