The Vatican never works in the spirit of political statements. Even Pope John Paul II ignored the name of the aggressor country when there was a war in Yugoslavia.
Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the UGCC said this in an interview with Telegraph.
"In addition to the fact that Pope Francis has already raised a prayer for Ukraine hundreds of times, he has solemn speeches to the world twice a week — on Wednesday and Sunday. Almost every time, even until February, he talks about Ukraine and condemns all atrocities. For many months, Russia was not named, but on August 27, when the Vatican made a sharp statement, Russia was finally named. In the presence of two lay people, Denys Kolyada and Myroslav Marynovych, he clearly said that anyone who does not defend himself compares himself to suicide. And those who defend themselves also protect innocent people," Metropolitan Borys said.
However, according to him, some previous ambiguous things, of course, remain in the memory.
"It is very important, and it seems that it is not fully appreciated, that the release of our prisoners of war, including Azov commanders, took place with the assistance of the Pope. Negotiations were held in which the Turkish president participated, and it looked like Turkey was already giving up, and the Pope, through Erdogan, pushed this process. This was done on the requests of the Ukrainian authorities. Budanov was also present there. Denys Kolyada offered the Pope to meet him. It was a very informative and lengthy meeting that took place back in August," Bishop Borys said.
The Metropolitan of the UGCC stressed that the Vatican does not work in the spirit of political statements. He tries to leave the opportunity to be an intermediary until the last moment. At one time, Pope John Paul II avoided the name of the aggressor country when there was a war in Yugoslavia.
"Any ambiguities in this situation are very painful for us. And I had the opportunity to tell this the Pope personally on August 26. We talked for an hour and a half. I explained that this is a pathology of Russian culture, how dangerous it is, and that the Ukrainians said they would not be slaves. African Americans will not be slaves in the United States, America will not be a colony of England, Algeria — of France, and Ukraine — of Russia. That's what I said to the Pope. And NATO is not the cause of this war.
On the contrary, if Ukraine had been in NATO since 2008, as President Bush then suggested (but France and Germany prevented this), this war would not have happened. The Pope nodded, and he acknowledged it. The process of communication continues, and the Pope is obviously deeply appalled by Russia's actions. He told Patriarch Kirill in a direct conversation that the latter shouldn’t be a servant of Putin, of the authorities. Therefore, the Patriarch prefered not to meet him in Kazakhstan. The Pope expressed himself clearly and in a way that the Popes had not expressed themselves before," Metropolitan Borys Gudziak stressed.