Pope: War in Ukraine should not be viewed as a conflict of good and evil
In an interview with journalists from the Jesuit media in Europe, Pope Francis said that the war in Ukraine "maybe provoked in certain ways." This is reported by the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The pontiff condemned the "ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops", but at the same time said that the war in Ukraine should not be viewed as a stereotyped conflict of good and evil.
“We need to move away from the standard Red Riding Hood pattern where the Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was bad. Something global is emerging, and the elements are very much intertwined,” said the Pope. “There are no metaphysical abstract concepts of good and evil here.”
“A couple of months before the outbreak of the war, I met the head of state, a wise man who speaks little. After talking for a while, he told me that he was very concerned about how NATO was advancing. I asked him why, and he replied, "They bark at the gates of Russia. And they do not understand that the Russians are imperial and do not allow any foreign power to come near them." He concluded, "The situation could lead to war." This was his opinion. The war began on 24 February. It was the head of state who was able to read the signs of what was happening,” Pope Francis told the reporters.
The head of the RCC drew attention to the fact that, in addition to Ukraine, conflicts continue in other countries: in Nigeria, Congo, Myanmar, and recalled the clashes in Rwanda 25 years ago and stressed that the whole world is at war.
Recall that the Pope has already stated about “NATO barking at the borders of the Russian Federation” and that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by other states.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that Pope Francis is expected to meet with Patriarch Kirill in Kazakhstan in September 2022.
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