[Sundaycommunity] Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’

[Catherine Walther]

I wouldn't publicize what Nadeau (dubbed The Daily Beast) says too much.
Everything else I've read about Francis and the war shows him as trying his
best to remain neutral and non-political, caring instead for all of God's
children.  That is so much more of his peace-loving character.  Why try to
make him into a political critic, except maybe to promote an agenda.  My
belief is that she is trying to sell papers.  Have a good day everyone,
Catherine

On Sun, 8 May 2022 at 11:53, Arthur Blomme via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> Here is an article from the The Daily Beast
> <https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-francis-says-nato-started-war-in-ukraine-by-barking-at-putins-door>
> reporting Francis speaking out against the manufactured consent in the west
> for war against Russia.  I was pleased to learn that Francis shares similar
> views to myself on this war. Unsympathetic author accuses Francis of
> Conspiracy Theories.  In today's fog of war if you do not support the
> dominant narrative put forward by the powers and principalities  you are
> designated a conspiracy theorist.
>
> Art
>
>
> Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’
>
> *The pontiff defended Putin and claimed—without foundation—that it was
> “others who created the conflict” in Ukraine.*
>
> ROME—Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis
> <https://www.thedailybeast.com/pope-francis-finally-admits-some-catholic-priests-are-deplorable>has
> floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv
> <https://www.thedailybeast.com/volodymyr-zelensky-believes-president-biden-will-visit-ukraine-soon>
> to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to
> Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin
> <https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-shadowy-russian-scheme-that-dumped-nazis-into-ukraine-before-vladimir-putins-war>,
> who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war
> and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.
>
> “I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told *Corriere
> Della Sera* in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not
> exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that
> the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which
> he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.”
>
> Never mind that the 85-year-old pontiff is unable to walk after tearing a
> ligament in his knee (for which he says he will soon have surgery), or that
> Putin won’t even answer his calls. Francis repeated comments he has made in
> general audiences and in other interviews that the war is nothing more than
> a giant opportunity for a “trade in arms” and that it is still ongoing
> because of the constant shuttling of weapons to Ukraine. He has spoken
> twice by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but mostly to
> urge him not to fight back. He also went to the Russian embassy to the Holy
> See days after the invasion began to “register his concerns” about what was
> happening.
>
> “I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is
> right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is
> that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are
> of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged:
> to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade,
> but more should be done.”
>
> Whether the Italian journalists didn’t ask—or whether he didn’t answer—
> there was no mention about what would happen if Ukrainians were not
> fiercely fighting back, whether it would mean a full annexation of the
> entire country, millions of deaths, or empowering an already insatiably
> power-hungry Putin.
>
> Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international
> community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can
> make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was
> others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything
> possible to stop the war.” The pope then said that in a state visit to Rome
> by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he was told “the Russians have a
> plan, that everything will end on May 9” without giving any further
> explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end
> of World War II.
>
> The one person Francis will not meet is Patriarch Kirill, the head of the
> Russian Orthodox church, who the pope fears is becoming “Putin’s altar
> boy.” Francis said he spoke with him on the phone for 40 minutes on March
> 15. “And I told him: I completely fail to understand this,” he said.
> “Brother, we are not state clerics; we cannot use the language of politics,
> but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God.”
>
> He said that 40 days ago he asked his secretary of state to start the
> process of organizing a visit to Moscow instead of Ukraine, but that Putin
> had not responded. “I am not going to Kyiv for now,” he said. “I feel that
> I must not go. First I must go to Moscow. First I must meet Putin. But I am
> also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin would only open the
> door.”
>
> News of the potential trip to Moscow put the Vatican press corps who
> travel with the pontiff on high alert, with many wondering if they would be
> arrested if they reported on discussions of the war if they were in Russia.
>
> But even the pontiff concedes that a meeting in Moscow is a long shot. “I
> fear that Putin cannot, and does not, want to have this meeting at this
> time,” he said. “But how can you not stop so much brutality?”
> <https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/barbie-latza-nadeau> Barbie Latza
> Nadeau <https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/barbie-latza-nadeau>
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*May you walk in joy as love calls us on.*
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