Pope Is Resisting Pressure to Denounce Putin

Critics are drawing parallels with WWII-era Pope Pius XII
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 18, 2022 9:00 AM CDT
Pope Is Resisting Pressure to Denounce Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulates Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill on the 13th anniversary of his enthronement in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022.   (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Pope Francis has not failed to condemn the war in Ukraine—he denounced the "barbarianism of the killing of children" in an address last Sunday—but a lot of people, including some Catholic bishops, would like him to be a lot more specific in his condemnation. Francis has spoken out against "armed aggression" but he hasn't named Russia or its leader as the aggressor. That has some critics drawing parallels with Pope Pius XII, who denounced atrocities in general during World War II but did not speak out against the Nazis or Adolf Hitler, the New York Times reports.

Francis has also been urged to speak out against Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has described the invasion as "a very correct path," per the National Catholic Reporter, and referred to people being forced to participate in "gay parades." In 2016, Francis became the first pope to meet his Orthodox counterpart since the Great Schism a thousand years ago. The two religious leaders discussed the war in a video call Wednesday, but the two churches offered different accounts of the conversation, the AP reports. The Orthodox church said both men expressed hope for a "just peace," while the Vatican said Francis had rejected the idea of a "just war."

Historian David Kertzer tells the Times that the "current plight of the pope does recall the situation that Pius XII faced." Kertzer notes that Hitler and Mussolini claimed neutral language from the Vatican about a "just peace" justified their actions, and Francis "is, whether knowingly or not, at the moment lending himself to being used by the Russians to support their position." An editorial in Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano this week pushed back hard against critics, saying popes don't name aggressors, "not out of cowardice or an excess of diplomatic prudence, but in order not to close the door" and "leave open a crack" to the possibility of playing a role in peace talks. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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