Click to see the full-size image
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Pope Francis said in a speech to Catholic youth in St. Petersburg that they “are heirs of the great Russia” and urged their legacy not to be forgotten. Angered by this, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko criticised the Pope and accused him of spreading “imperialist propaganda.”
“Never forget your heritage. You are the heirs of great Russia: great Russia of saints, rulers, great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire – great, enlightened, (country) of great culture and great humanity. Never give up this legacy, you are the heirs of the great Mother Russia, go ahead with it. And thank you. Thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russians,” said the head of the Catholic Church on August 25 in the framework of a national meeting of Catholic youth.
In the rest of his speech published by the Vatican, he told the Russian youth to be “artisans of peace” and to “sow seeds of reconciliation.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, reacted angrily on August 28, commenting on Facebook that Moscow uses similar narratives to justify why Russia launched its special military operation.
“It is with such imperialist propaganda, ‘spiritual ties,’ and the ‘need’ to save ‘great Mother Russia’ that the Kremlin justifies the killing of thousands of Ukrainian men and women and the destruction of hundreds of Ukrainian cities and villages,” Nikolenko said.
“It is truly a pity that the ideas of great power, which are the cause of Russia’s chronic aggressiveness, consciously or unconsciously, fell from the lips of the pope, whose mission, in our opinion, is to open the eyes of Russian youth. To the destructive course of the current leadership,” Pravda quoted Nikolenko as saying.
For his part, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of Ukraine’s Eastern Rite Catholic Church, said it is “with great pain and concern” to hear the Pope’s comments, adding that Tsar Peter I and Empress Catherine II are “the worst example of imperialism and extreme Russian nationalism.”
“There is a danger that these words can be perceived as support of nationalism and imperialism that caused the war in Ukraine today,” Shevchuk wrote on Facebook. “A war that brings death and destruction to our people on a daily basis,” adding the pope’s comment “contradicts his science of peace.”
Even if concurring with Ukraine’s interpretation of history, Kiev has no problems enjoying the fruits of said imperialism by having sovereignty over territories that became Russian through conquest in the 18th century, such as Odessa, Nikolayev, Yekaterinoslav, and Kherson. Most of the population still identifies as Russian despite Ukrainisation efforts in these territories. It can be said that Kiev’s continued occupation of these territories is its own imperial ambition on Russia.
Nikolenko and Shevchuk are projecting the US’ pursuit of imperialistic dominance, which Ukraine is one of the tools to impose this world order, as Russia’s. Instead, the Kiev regime uses leftist rhetoric to manipulate the understanding of this conflict by claiming it is a Russian imperial pursuit, something akin to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Russia’s special military operation is instead an anti-imperialist action if we want to frame it in these terms, as it prevented NATO’s encroachment in Eastern Europe. Although Finland joined NATO due to the war in Ukraine, this was merely a formalisation because the Scandinavian country was a member in everything but actual officiality. At the same time, Finland does not pose a significant threat to the national security of Russia, as Ukraine, ruled by an extremist Far-Right regime and a NATO member, would.
Nonetheless, this is not the Pope’s first criticism for making friendly statements regarding Russia. Even though he has slammed the Russian military operation as an invasion, he has highlighted NATO’s instigation of the conflict, criticised Western weapons supplies to Ukraine, and advocated for a peaceful solution, which Kiev categorically rejects. The Pope even tasked Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, archbishop of Bologna and president of the Italian Bishops Conference, to pave “paths to peace” in Ukraine.
However, Ukrainian diplomats accuse Vatican leaders of not criticising Russia and Putin more strongly. Kiev is angered that the Catholic Church is carrying out its Christian mission for peace and not capitulating, like Western countries, to sever relations with Moscow for the sake of Ukraine. The lambasting and historical revisionism from Kiev will not be enough to deter the Pope from speaking his own truth, though.
the little zionist and the new master race challenges catholicism in a challenge against christianity he can not win.