Pope Francis has given an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere

Pope Francis has given an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere

Pope Francis has given an interview to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera in which he says he has no current plans to visit Kyiv, but that he he has offered to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. Qazet.az quotes him saying;

The first day of the war I called the Ukrainian President Zelenskiy on the phone. Putin, I didn’t call him. I wanted to make a clear gesture for the whole world to see.

And then I asked Cardinal Parolin, after twenty days of war, to send Putin the message that I was willing to go to Moscow. We have not yet received an answer. I fear that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting right now. But so much brutality how can you not stop it? Twenty-five years ago we experienced the same thing with Rwanda.

I’m not going to Kyiv for now. I sent Cardinal Michael Czerny and Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. But I feel I don’t have to go. First I have to go to Moscow, first I have to meet Putin. But I’m a priest too, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin opened the door ...

The Pope also had some critical words for Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has been a vocal supporter of the war.

I spoke to Kirill for 40 minutes via Zoom. The first twenty with a card in hand he read me all the justifications for the war. I listened and told him: I don’t understand anything about this. Brother, we are not clerics of state , we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus.