The Vatican is in damage control mode after Pope Francis gushed over “great Russia” in comments to a group of young Russian Catholics over the weekend.
His remarks, in which he urged the group to be proud that they are “descendants of the great Mother Russia,” sparked outrage in Ukraine, where they were seen as eerily similar to Vladimir Putin’s speech justifying the slaughter of Ukrainians to preserve what he described as a great empire.
“It is precisely with such imperialist propaganda, the ‘spiritual ties’ and the ‘need’ to save ‘great Mother Russia,’ that the Kremlin justifies the killing of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said of the pontiff’s speech.
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The Kremlin, meanwhile, lapped up the pontiff’s remarks, pouring salt in the wound for many Ukrainians. “It is admirable that the pontiff knows Russian history,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The pontiff going along with this effort is really good and makes us glad,” he said of Pope Francis helping to preserve the “legacy” of Russian history.
A spokesman for the Vatican on Tuesday sought to quell growing fury over the comments, saying in a statement that Pope Francis did not mean to praise “imperialistic logic” or Russian rulers but simply to inspire young Russians.
“In the words of greeting spontaneously addressed to some young Russian Catholics a few days ago, as clearly follows from the context in which they were delivered,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said, the pope “wanted to encourage young people to preserve and promote what is positive in the great Russian cultural and spiritual heritage.”
In his remarks, delivered Friday via video link, the pontiff told the Russians to “never give up” on their heritage. “You are descendants of the great Mother Russia, step forward with it. And thank you—thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russian,” he said.
This is not the first time Pope Francis has been called out for promoting Kremlin talking points. A few months into Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine last year, he claimed the war may have been “provoked.”
“What we are seeing is the brutality and ferocity with which this war is being carried out by the troops, generally mercenaries, used by the Russians,” he was quoted as saying at the time. “But the danger is that we only see this, which is monstrous, and we do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented.”
