OPINION: Pope Francis creates confusion as Putin's war against Ukraine rages
that he does not support the war or Putin’s personal butchery, he has created more confusion than resolution. He has nurtured, even if unintentionally, a false mantra that, essentially, the West is to blame for Putin’s aggression by having expanded NATO. As he said, quoting a source he valued,"They are barking at the gates of Russia. They do not understand that the Russians are imperialists and will allow no foreign power to approach them.
Unfortunately, an authoritarian strongman like Putin will only be ennobled by these comments coming from the top of one of the West’s most esteemed institutions. Appeasement has never worked. As Churchill said,"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last." In light of the history of Hitler and Stalin’s co-option and then destruction of the Church, one would hope that the pope would know this.
The pope has added to this confusion about the Holy See’s diplomacy regarding the Ukraine war by criticizing those who see the war as a struggle between good and evil. He advises those who view the war in such stark black and white terms to abandon this"Little Red Riding Hood" pattern of thought. He even contends that"there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys, in an abstract sense.
So a few questions: what level of death and destruction are necessary to make the wolf a malevolent aggressor? Has not the obliteration of a large part of Ukraine already accomplished this? Are there no universal truths and objective realities? Is the pope actually endorsing moral relativity?Pope Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, on the occasion of their private audience at the Vatican, Thursday, July 4. 2019.
Lastly, the pope has said that"While we see the ferocity, the cruelty of Russian troops, we must not forget the ‘real problems’ if we want them to be solved." Is not the
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