In a sign of growing deterioration in relations over Russia's war in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has canceled his scheduled attendance at an interfaith gathering in Kazakhstan next month where he was anticipated to meet with Pope Francis.The head of the Moscow Patriarchate's international relations, Metropolitan (or bishop) Anthony of Volokolamsk, was quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency as saying that since Patriarch Kirill wouldn't be present at the summit from September 13–15, any meeting with Francis was out of the question.
Kirill has used spiritual and theological justifications for the invasion of Ukraine, referring to it as a "metaphysical" conflict with the West. He invoked the idea that Russians and Ukrainians are one people and blessed Russian soldiers going into fight.
In what would have been the second meeting between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian patriarch, Francis had just last month confirmed that he would meet with Kirill at the Kazakhstan summit. Their first took place in 2016, and their second was supposed to take place in June but was postponed due to the diplomatic effects of the war.Francis has expressed his opposition to the conflict in Ukraine but has made an effort to maintain the possibility of communication with Moscow by not naming Russia, Vladimir Putin, or Kirill by name. His impartial stance has infuriated Kyiv, which this week denounced his remarks bemoaning the fact that innocent people on both sides were suffering as a result of the war.
Francis said those things on Wednesday, the six-month mark of the conflict. His remarks made reference to the weekend car bombing in Moscow that killed Darya Dugina, a nationalist Russian TV pundit and the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a right-wing political thinker who fervently supports the war.Francis listed the orphans in Russia and Ukraine, as well as the "poor girl" slain by a vehicle bomb in Moscow, as victims of the "insanity of war."
Andrii Yurash, the ambassador of Ukraine to the Holy See, called Francis' remarks "disappointing" since they seemed to equate "aggressor & victim, rapist and violated." He questioned how Francis could refer to a "ideologist of imperialism as innocent victim" in a tweet on Wednesday.
This article first appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
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