VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Addressing the war in Ukraine, which has cost both sides an estimated 500,000 lives in the two years since Russia’s invasion, Pope Francis urged Ukrainian leaders to have the “courage of the white flag and to negotiate” before things get worse.
The pope’s words, which came in an interview with the Swiss broadcaster RSI that aired Saturday (March 9), were met with anger and outrage by Ukrainian political and religious leaders while the Vatican scrambled to clarify the comments.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the pope and the Vatican have vigorously called for peace in the conflict while offering to help mediate between the two sides. The pontiff’s neutral stance has irked many leaders in Europe who see Russia’s belligerence as a moral matter as much as a military one.
In the interview, journalist Lorenzo Buccella asked the pope whether surrendering in a conflict is equivalent with giving in to a logic where power is might and only the strongest win.
“The strongest one is he who looks at the situation, thinks of the people and has the courage of the white flag and to negotiate, with the help of international organizations,” Francis answered. He added that “negotiation is a courageous word,” and despite feelings of “shame” it’s essential “to negotiate in time.”
The 87-year-old pontiff seemed to say that the burden of negotiation rested with any country that could bring peace. “Today, for example, with the war in Ukraine there are many who wish to act as a mediator. Turkey for example. Don’t be ashamed to negotiate, before things get worse,” the pope said.
Pope Francis reads his message during the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to the pope’s remarks by thanking the chaplains who stand by the Ukrainian people through dialogue, prayer and action.
“This is what the church does: it stays close to people, not somewhere 2,500 kilometers away, virtually mediating between those who want to live and those who want to destroy you,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukrainian soldiers defend the West “under a blue and yellow flag.”
Kyiv’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, stated that Ukraine “will never raise other flags” and invited the pope to visit the battle-torn city in support of its Christian population. The Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See used harsher terms, urging the pope to “be coherent!” in his approach to a Third World War, which Francis has often warned against.
“When we speak of a Third World War, which we are in now, we must learn from the lessons of the Second World War: Did anyone seriously talk about negotiating a peace with Hitler and raising a white flag to appease him? There is only one lesson: if we wish to end the war, we must do everything to kill the Dragon!” a tweet from the embassy read.
The Vatican spokesperson for the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, attempted to emphasize the pope’s closeness to the suffering of the Ukrainian people in a statement published on Sunday. When referring to the “white flag,” Bruni explained, the pope means “the interruption of hostilities, a cease-fire achieved through the courage of negotiations.”
In the interview, he added, the pope “clearly states” that negotiation is not equivalent to surrender.
In May, Francis appointed Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to help negotiate a peace in Ukraine, beginning with talks with Russian, Chinese and United States representatives. On the ground in Ukraine, the Catholic Church has made Greek-Catholic Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk its primary peacemaker.
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, left, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin meet during a synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Vatican City in 2019. (Photo courtesy Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
“Ukraine is wounded but undefeated,” Shevchuk told Italian media outlets on Sunday. “Ukraine is exhausted, but it still stands. In Ukraine, no one has the opportunity of surrendering! And to all those who look skeptically at our ability to stand our ground, we say: come to Ukraine and you will see!”
In a statement to Italian news agencies on Sunday, the Kremlin said that negotiations remain open with Ukraine, saying its position in the war was at a “dead end.” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said she interpreted the pope’s interview as Francis “asking the West to set its ambitions aside and admit that it was wrong.”
In the interview, Francis also spoke about the war between Israel and Hamas, which has killed more than 30,000. “War is fought between two parties, not one. The two who are waging war are responsible,” the pope said.
Francis also reckoned with his own failures and mistakes. “When someone feels confident because they have power, they know how to navigate the environments of work and finance, he is tempted to forget that one day he will be begging, begging for youth, begging for health, begging for life,” said the aging pontiff.
“It’s the temptation of omnipotence. And this omnipotence is not white. We must all mature our relationship with our own mistakes, because we are all sinners,” he added.
