When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Ideas

If The Pope Won't Condemn Putin, He'll Wind Up On The Wrong Side Of History

Pope Francis must make a hard choice that supersedes his eagerness to heal the rift between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, which is diluting his already tepid postures on the Russian war in Ukraine.

If The Pope Won't Condemn Putin, He'll Wind Up On The Wrong Side Of History

Pope Francis receiving the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2020

Ricardo Roa

-OpEd-

BUENOS AIRES — It is difficult to find an explanation for the Pope's choice for discretion in the face of the massacre in Ukraine. A month into the invasion, as the deaths and destruction mount, Pope Francis has yet to condemn Russia or its president, Vladimir Putin. As far as our Jorge Bergoglio, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, is concerned, they are not at fault. Few in the world would agree; in fact he is swimming against the tide.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

Thousands have already died and 10 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes, with 3.5 million fleeing abroad. This is the biggest outpouring of refugees in Europe since World War II.

The pope's strange, even bizarre, silence has been explained by some who seem to want to justify him. What are the apologists saying? They say Francis has yet to mention Russia or Putin by name because he wants to be a facilitator of negotiations, which he has yet to succeed in doing. In diplomacy, a facilitator is in a less risky position than a negotiator from a political standpoint.

Why not call this an invasion?

You can always use words to justify this omission (which is not an oversight, because it is deliberate) of a brazen aggression and the Russians' use of high-tech missiles on schools, hospitals and shopping malls; in other words, on innocent civilians .

The Pope's discourse is dense, but he won't say a simple thing: that one state has invaded another. He has repeatedly condemned the killings and sent messages and envoys to Moscow and Kyiv. His actions were also paltry — calling for a day of fasting and prayer for the victims — with seemingly paltry results. Again on Friday, Francis organized a special prayer for peace in Ukraine in a ceremony that evoked a century-old apocalyptic prophecy linked to purported visions of the Virgin Mary to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. Still, prayers are not the only tools that Pope's can turn to

Saying nothing about Putin's war is definitely not enough

Yes, there have been two bolder diplomatic gestures in the past month. One was to visit the Russian embassy in the Vatican, 100 meters from Saint Peter's Square, in the same building as the Argentine embassy. It was exceptional as popes do not visit embassies. The other was more subtle, as he rejected the Russian label of a "special military operation" instead of war. That is the Kremlin's own use of words to hide some ugly facts.

Francis has received Putin three times, more than any other European head of state

Stefano Spaziani/dpa via ZUMA

Infighting within the Orthodox Church

A key personality in understanding this incredible silence is Kirill I, the Patriarch of Moscow, who calls Putin a "miracle of God." Francis is determined to bring the Western and Eastern churches closer and met with Kirill, the head of Russian Orthodoxy, in Havana in 2016. Moscow itself rivals the Patriarch of Constantinople as head of the Eastern Church, and was dealt a blow when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church declared itself independent of Moscow in 2019, with support from the Greek Church.

There is an intense fight going on in the Ukrainian Church. Kirill controls two of the three groups that make up its flock, and blocked the bishop of Kyiv's designation as a cardinal. Also, to help Francis, he authorized for the first time the designation of a Catholic archbishop in Moscow.

Kirill has been the pope's intermediary with Putin. Francis has received Putin three times, more than any other European head of state. The first time was in 2013, when the two asked the United States not to intervene militarily in Syria, then after the Russian takeover of Crimea, which Kirill praised, and lastly in 2019.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

Sign up to our free daily newsletter.

In a word, Putin and Kirill share a nationalism that transcends religion. They want an empire and Russia as the center of opposition to the liberalism of Western democracies. Kirill blessed the cathedral Putin had built for the armies of Russia.

It is likely too much to ask the pope to visit Kyiv to stop the killings, as Ukraine has desperately urged. But saying nothing is definitely the wrong decision in the face of Putin's brutal war.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Migrant Lives

They Migrated From Chiapas When Opportunities Dried Up, Orchids Brought Them Home

An orchid rehabilitation project is turning a small Mexican community into a tourist magnet — and attracting far-flung locals back to their hometown.

They Migrated From Chiapas When Opportunities Dried Up, Orchids Brought Them Home

Marcos Aguilar Pérez takes care of orchids rescued from the rainforest in his backyard in Santa Rita Las Flores, Mapastepec, Chiapas, Mexico.

Adriana Alcázar González/GPJ Mexico
Adriana Alcázar González

MAPASTEPEC — Sweat cascades down Candelaria Salas Gómez’s forehead as she separates the bulbs of one of the orchids she and the other members of the Santa Rita Las Flores Community Ecotourism group have rescued from the rainforest. The group houses and protects over 1,000 orchids recovered from El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve, in the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas, after powerful storms.

“When the storms and heavy rains end, we climb to the vicinity of the mountains and collect the orchids that have fallen from the trees. We bring them to Santa Rita, care for them, and build their strength to reintegrate them into the reserve later,” says Salas Gómez, 32, as she attaches an orchid to a clay base to help it recover.

Like magnets, the orchids of Santa Rita have exerted a pull on those who have migrated from the area due to lack of opportunity. After years away from home, Salas Gómez was one of those who returned, attracted by the community venture to rescue these flowers and exhibit them as a tourist attraction, which provides residents with an adequate income.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest