Russia says no deal for Pope Francis’ Putin visit

The Russian government said there was no agreement for Pope Francis to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin during his war in Ukraine. Yesterday, Francisco’s wish was revealed in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

“Such attempts are sent by diplomatic services. There is no agreement on talks and they have not been reached,” Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Tass.

In the interview, Francis said he wanted to “make a clear gesture for the whole world to see”. The Pope has criticized the Russian war and wants to put an end to the conflict.

Orthodox Church

Francis also recalled that he spoke to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, via video call in March. “I talked to Kirill for 40 minutes. The first twenty minutes he read me all the reasons for the war with a card in his hand,” he recalls.

“I listened and said, ‘I don’t understand any of this. Brother we are not state clergy, we cannot use the language of politics, we use the language of Jesus. We are priests of the same blessed servant of God, to put an end to the gunfire”. In the Pope’s view, Kirill “could not be Putin’s altar child.”

The Pope said, “You cannot think that a free state can declare war on another free state. It was others who created the conflict in Ukraine.” Francis further noted that “there is not enough will for peace”. “War is terrible and we must scream,” he said. “I am pessimistic, but we must take every possible action to stop the war,” he said.

Today, the Orthodox Church has criticized Francis’s words about Kirill. “It is a pity that Pope Francis, one and a half months after his meeting with Patriarch Kirill, chose the wrong style to convey the content of this speech. Such statements should not contribute to the establishment of a constructive dialogue between Roman Catholics and Russians. “

In his conversation with Francis, Orthodox said that Kirill “remembered that at the end of the Soviet era Russia was guaranteed NATO. [Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte] It wouldn’t have moved a centimeter to the east.” “But that promise was not kept,” he said. “As a result, a very dangerous situation arose: NATO’s borders were in St. Petersburg is 130 kilometers away. The missile’s flight time is only a few minutes. If Ukraine had been accepted into NATO, the flight time to Moscow would have been minutes. Russia cannot and cannot allow this to happen,” he said.

According to the Orthodox Church, at the end of this speech, Kirill said that his flock was on both sides of the conflict.