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04 May 2022, 15:38Pope Francis' recount of conversation with Patriarch Kirill incorrect - Russian Orthodox Church
Moscow, May 4, Interfax - Pope Francis has given an incorrect recount of his recent conversation with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia about the situation around Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church said.
"It is regrettable that a month and a half after the conversation with Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis chose the wrong tone to recount the contents of this conversation. Such remarks are unlikely to help promote a constructive dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, a dialogue which is especially needed at this time," the press service for the Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church said in a statement on Wednesday.
Pope Francis said in an interview with Corriere della Sera the day before, "I spoke with Kirill for forty minutes on Zoom. For the first twenty minutes, he read from a piece of paper he was holding in his hand all the reasons that justify 'the Russian special military operation'. I listened to him and then replied: I don't understand any of this. Brother, we are not state clerics, we shouldn't speak the language of politics, but rather the language of Jesus. We are shepherds of the same holy flock of God. For this reason we must look for a path to peace, we must stop the fighting. A Patriarch can't lower himself to become Putin's altar boy. I had a meeting with him, scheduled for June 14, in Jerusalem. It would have been our second face-to-face, nothing to do with the war. But we called it off, we agreed that it could send the wrong message."
The Russian Orthodox Church, in turn, said that in their conversation on March 16, the patriarch told the pope that the conflict began back in 2014 with the Maidan protests in Kiev, which resulted in the change of power in Ukraine. The patriarch particularly underscored the May 2, 2015, events in Odessa and their consequences.
"Russian-speaking residents defending their right to their native language and culture were holding a peaceful rally in this city. This peaceful assembly was attacked by representatives of Nazi groups, who began beating demonstrators with clubs. People started looking for shelter in the nearby House of Trade Unions. And a terrible thing happened: this building was locked and then torched. People tried to save their lives by jumping from the second and third floors, but of course they fell to their death. Those who approached the windows but did not dare to jump were shot at from the ground. We were following all those events live on TV. That horrible lesson of Odessa prompted residents of the southeast of Ukraine to defend their rights," Patriarch Kirill said.
The patriarch said then that before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia received "not one inch eastward" assurances from NATO. However, this promise was broken, and even the former Soviet Baltic republics joined the alliance. A very dangerous situation emerged as a result: the NATO border is a mere 130 kilometers from St. Petersburg, and NATO missiles' time of arrival is just several minutes. If Ukraine was admitted to NATO, it would also take missiles a few minutes to reach Moscow. Russia could not and cannot allow this to happen, Patriarch Kirill said. |
