ROME – Russian spokespersons have praised what they called Pope Francis’s “balanced approach” to the war in Ukraine, in the wake of protests by both Ukrainian civic and church officials that the pontiff recently used rhetoric which, even if unintentionally, could be seen as boosting Russia’s imperial ambitions.
The controversy erupted in the wake of an August 25th video address by Pope Francis to a group of Russian Catholic youth gathered in St. Petersburg, when the pope told the young people they are “heirs of the great Mother Russia”.
