“When we speak of a Third World War, which we are in now, we must learn from the lessons of the Second World War: Did anyone seriously talk about negotiating a peace with Hitler and raising a white flag to appease him? There is only one lesson: if we wish to end the war, we must do everything to kill the Dragon!” a tweet from the embassy read.
The Vatican spokesperson for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, attempted to emphasize the pope’s closeness to the suffering of the Ukrainian people in a statement published on Sunday. When referring to the “white flag,” Bruni explained, the pope means “the interruption of hostilities, a cease-fire achieved through the courage of negotiations.”
In the interview, he added, the pope “clearly states” that negotiation is not equivalent to surrender.
In May, Francis appointed Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to help negotiate a peace in Ukraine, beginning with talks with Russian, Chinese and United States representatives. On the ground in Ukraine, the Catholic Church has made Greek-Catholic Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk its primary peacemaker.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, left, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin meet during a synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Vatican City in 2019. (Photo courtesy Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
“Ukraine is wounded but undefeated,” Shevchuk told Italian media outlets on Sunday. “Ukraine is exhausted, but it still stands. In Ukraine, no one has the opportunity of surrendering! And to all those who look skeptically at our ability to stand our ground, we say: come to Ukraine and you will see!”
In a statement to Italian news agencies on Sunday, the Kremlin said that negotiations remain open with Ukraine, saying its position in the war was at a “dead end.” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said she interpreted the pope’s interview as Francis “asking the West to set its ambitions aside and admit that it was wrong.”
In the interview, Francis also spoke about the war between Israel and Hamas, which has killed more than 30,000. “War is fought between two parties, not one. The two who are waging war are responsible,” the pope said.
Francis also reckoned with his own failures and mistakes. “When someone feels confident because they have power, they know how to navigate the environments of work and finance, he is tempted to forget that one day he will be begging, begging for youth, begging for health, begging for life,” said the aging pontiff.
“It’s the temptation of omnipotence. And this omnipotence is not white. We must all mature our relationship with our own mistakes, because we are all sinners,” he added.
This article originally appeared here.
