“When I received lists of prisoners, both civilian and military, I sent them to the Russian government, and the response was always very positive,” Pope Francis said today in an interview published by the North American Jesuit newspaper America.
Francis, who has been criticized in the past for alleged ambiguity in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine for not naming Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that when he talks about Ukraine, he is talking about “martyrs, martyr people.”
“If there are people who are martyrs, there is someone who tortures them. When I talk about Ukraine, I talk about cruelty, because I have a lot of information about the arriving troops,” said the head of the Catholic Church.
“Of course, the occupier is the Russian state. It is clear. Sometimes I try not to specify, so as not to offend or condemn in general terms, although it is clear who I am judging. First and last name is not required. Why didn’t I nominate Putin? Because it was not necessary, it was already known. Everyone knows what my position is, with Putin and without Putin, without naming him,” Papa added.
Francis recalled that on the second day of the invasion, he went to the Russian embassy, which was an unusual gesture for a pope, and claims that at the time he told the ambassador to tell Putin that he was ready to go, on the condition that he left him “a small window for negotiations.”
In an interview, he explained that he spoke on the phone three times with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that he had made the decision that if he did go, he would go to Moscow and Kyiv, denying that he ever gave the impression that he was “covering up.” aggression,” adding that they received delegates from the Ukrainian government several times.
However, he reiterated that “the position of the Holy See is to seek peace and understanding” and that “the diplomacy of the Holy See is moving in that direction and is obviously always available for mediation”.
The Pope also touched on the internal issues of the Catholic Church, such as the opening of the priesthood to women, stating that it was a “theological matter”, that an opening for women was not foreseen, but that it could not be seen as a “deprivation”.
“The theology of woman has not yet been developed, there is only the possibility of an administrative principle,” the pope said, emphasizing the role of women.
“Women are mothers and better than us men see the sacrament of the Church. That’s why women’s advice is so important. And the female solution is better. When a woman goes into politics or government, she usually does well. And it is women, there are many economists who are constructively renewing the economy,” he said.
When asked about racism in the American Catholic Church, the Pope called it “an unbearable sin”, as well as sexual abuse of minors, which he called “monstrous”.
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