Pope Francis has revealed that a meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kyrill, which would have been their second after their historic meeting in 2016, was scheduled for June but had to be canceled because it could have been '
confusing
' in the context current.
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In an interview with the Argentine daily La Nacion on Friday, the pope assures that his relations with Patriarch Kyrill are "
very good
" and says "
to regret that the Vatican had to cancel a second meeting with Patriarch Kyrill, which we had planned for June in Jerusalem
”.
Possible “confusion”
“
But our diplomacy felt that a meeting of the two at this time could lead to a lot of confusion
”, explains the sovereign pontiff, a clear allusion to the war in Ukraine.
In February 2016, a historic meeting took place in Cuba between the pope and the patriarch, the first meeting of the heads of the two largest Christian denominations in nearly a thousand years and an important step in the rapprochement of the Vatican with the Russian Orthodox.
But since the start of Russia's offensive in Ukraine on February 24, the leaders of the two Churches have had fundamentally different attitudes.
Pope Francis has repeatedly called for peace, lambasting the ever more horrendous cruelty “in Ukraine.
Patriarch close to Russian power
An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch Kirill, for his part, defended the military operation, again asking in mid-April to rally around power to fight the "
external and internal enemies
" of Russia.
In mid-March, the heads of the two churches had a video interview on the war in Ukraine, during which they wished for "
a fair peace
"
,
according to the Moscow Patriarchate.
But also on the occasion of which the pope pointed out to the patriarch that the Church should “
not use the language of politics
”, according to the Vatican.
In the interview with La Nacion, the pope explains that he recently kissed in public a Ukrainian flag from the town of Boutcha - the site of a massacre of civilians - as a "
gesture of solidarity with their dead, with their families and with those who suffer from emigration
".
The sovereign pontiff also says that he does not see what a trip on his part to Ukraine would currently bring - a country mainly divided between two Orthodox Christian churches, one independent and the other attached to the Moscow Patriarchate.
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“
I must not do anything that would jeopardize higher objectives, which are the end of the war, a truce, or, at least, a humanitarian corridor.
What would be the use of the Pope going to kyiv if the war continued the next day?
“, he asks.
But “
I am ready to do everything
” so that “
there is not one more death in Ukraine.
Not one more
,” he says.
