Vatican seeks to appease outrage over pope’s statement on Ukraine

The Secretary of State of Vatican was trying to appease the indignation caused by the most recent diplomatic incursion of the Pope Francisco by insisting in statements to the press that a main condition for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine is the end of Russian aggression, and that any peace must be a “just peace”.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin toured the Italian solidarity media on the same day that kyiv summoned the ambassador of the Holy See to complain about Francis’ statement that Ukraine owes the “value of the white flag” to negotiate the end of the war.

Francis’ statements to Swiss broadcaster RSI, recorded in early February but broadcast last Saturday, immediately drew criticism from Ukraine and its allies, even as the Vatican press office attempted to redirect attention to other statements in the same interview, that “negotiation is never a surrender.”

The uproar once again forced the Vatican diplomatic corps to smooth Francis’s informal, improvised way of speaking and present a position more in line with the Holy See’s tradition of diplomatic neutrality.

In an interview with the evening newspaper Corriere della Sera published on Tuesday, Parolin noted that in another speech last month Francis advocated for a diplomatic solution in Ukraine and efforts for a just and lasting peace.

“In that sense, it is obvious that the creation of these conditions is not the task of a single party but of both parties, and the first condition would be to put an end to the aggression,” Parolin said in statements reproduced by the Vatican News portal.

The Secretary of State observed that Francisco’s statement on the “White flag” It was in response to a question that he used that phrase and that the pontiff later insisted that “negotiation is never a surrender.”

The prelate also said in statements to the Italian state network RAI that “peace in Ukraine must be a just peace. It means recognizing mutual rights and also mutual duties, especially taking into account the dignity of the people.”

This is not the first time that Francis’s somewhat imprecise statements, which are often appreciated in other contexts due to their simplicity, have caused a diplomatic headache for the Holy See and angered one side or the other in the war.

He has expressed solidarity with the “martyrdom” of the Ukrainian people, but has refused to name Russia or its president Vladimir Putin. Apparently, he has claimed to understand the invasion by saying that NATO ““barks at the gates of Russia” as it expanded eastward, but received a formal protest from Moscow attributing the cruelty to the Chechens and other minorities.

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