Pope Francis has failed to be a spiritual mediator in Ukraine
His mistrust of America seems to stop him seeing Vladimir Putin clearly
Whenever pope Francis looks up from his writing, he is reminded of Ukraine. On his desk sits an icon he acquired while archbishop of Buenos Aires as a parting gift from one of his bishops, Svyatoslav Shevchuk, who in 2011 returned to Kyiv to lead the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic church. It was among the few possessions Francis brought to Rome. The depth of his concern for Ukraine became obvious on December 8th when he was moved to tears as he mentioned its suffering at a ceremony in Rome.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “No room in the middle”
Europe December 24th 2022
From the December 24th 2022 edition
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