Pope Francis: End the ‘madness’ of war

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As Russia continued its assault on Ukraine and Russian troops pressed toward the capital, Kyiv, Pope Francis left the Vatican Feb. 25 to pay a visit to the Russian ambassador to the Holy See.

The pope went to the embassy, located at the end of the main road leading to the Vatican, “to express his concern for the war,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office. The pope spent about half an hour at the embassy, he said.

Russian ambassador speaks

Although the embassy told Catholic News Service it had no statement, Ambassador Aleksandr Avdeyev told Russian media: “The focus of the conversation was the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Pope Francis expressed great concern for the situation of the entire population, both in the Donbas (in Eastern Ukraine) and in other areas, and called for the protection of children, the protection of the sick and suffering, the protection of people.”

The pope said, “This is the main Christian goal,” Avdeyev told the government-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

Avdeyev categorically denied to the Rome correspondent of the Russian news agency TASS that Pope Francis had offered to mediate the conflict, an idea reported by the Argentine news agency Télam.

“Donbas” refers to Ukraine’s regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian-backed separatists have been waging war against Ukrainian troops since 2014, killing and maiming thousands and forcing more than 1.5 million people to flee.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the two regions Feb. 21, setting up what many in the West saw as a pretext to invade Ukraine to defend those regions. In the early hours of Feb. 24, the Russian assault on Ukraine began.

Hope for dialogue

In a statement after the pope’s embassy visit, the Ukrainian Catholic Church said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych “hopes the meeting represents a further push for dialogue to prevail over force. The Ukrainian people, who are defending themselves courageously, cry to the world, ‘Stop the war!’”

Pope Francis has not spoken publicly about the invasion, although shortly before it began he had said, “My heart aches greatly at the worsening situation in Ukraine. Despite the diplomatic efforts of the last few weeks, increasingly alarming scenarios are opening up.”

He asked people to pray and fast for peace in Ukraine March 2, Ash Wednesday, writing, “May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.”

After the fighting began, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, released a video message insisting it was not too late to stop fighting and not too late for diplomacy “to safeguard the legitimate aspirations of everyone and spare the world from the folly and horrors of war.”

U.S. Catholics react

As war broke out, Catholics in the U.S. joined Pope Francis in prayers for the people of the East European nation and for peace.

“We join @Pontifex in calling on all people of goodwill to pray for the people of #Ukraine and for an end to war,” said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a tweet, hours after Russia launched rocket attacks into Ukraine and followed the aggression with a mobilization of troops and tanks into Ukrainian territory.

News reports showed bombarded apartment buildings and towns and abandoned cities.

Some reported at least 40 casualties, others said they numbered in the hundreds early Feb. 24. The only thing for certain, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, is that “peace on our continent has been shattered.”

Holy Cross Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, in a Feb. 24 statement recalled a 2019 visit to Lviv, Ukraine, to present an award to Archbishop Borys Gudziak, now head of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, for his “leadership of the first Catholic university established in the territory of the former Soviet Union.”

Father Jenkins said that during the presentation of the award, he “spoke of the innumerable challenges in a society traumatized by war, genocide and political oppression and of the efforts of Archbishop Gudziak and his colleagues to bring to Ukraine healing and hope.”

Ukraine, once part of the Soviet Union, under whose rule it suffered a famine that led to millions of deaths, voted for independence in 1991.

Distortion of history

In a Feb. 23 interview with Relevant Radio, Archbishop Gudziak explained how Russia’s Vladimir Putin sees Ukraine as part of its territory, fomenting separatist movements in the country as he sought to absorb it.

But the archbishop called it a “ridiculous distortion of history and a negation of the human dignity of Ukrainians. Basically saying ‘you don’t exist, you didn’t exist ... we’re going to use force and subdue you.’”

He also spoke of what he sees as the consequences for people of faith.

“The sad story for Ukrainian Catholics is that every time Russia takes over some part of Ukraine where the Ukrainian Catholic Church exists, sooner or later, whether it’s within a month or a year or 10 years or 20, the Ukrainian Catholic Church is simply obliterated,” he told Relevant Radio.

“And this will be the case for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which also endured great persecution, and for other people of goodwill who want to express their spiritual lives, their culture, use their language,” Archbishop Gudziak said. “It’s really devastating.”

Suffering under different flag

Notre Dame’s Father Jenkins said the former oppressors of Ukraine were now known by another name “and are waging war under a different flag, but the trauma is no less today than in the past in this nation that has suffered far too much.”

“Our friends in Ukraine are in need of healing and hope,” he said in his statement. “We at Notre Dame stand in solidarity with all peace-loving people worldwide in demanding an end to this invasion of a sovereign nation. This unprovoked war is an international abomination and must stop now.”

“Until it does,” he said, “may God keep safe all of the innocent men, women and children who are currently in harm’s way. The prayers of the Notre Dame family are with them.”

– Carol Zimmermann of CNS contributed to this report.