The Ukraine Crisis: Pope's Past Shapes U.S.-Wary Stance

"ROME -- In Pope Francis' view, the conflict in Ukraine isn't a straightforward case of good against evil.

The pontiff recently told a group of Catholic journalists that conflict in Ukraine isn't like fairy tales. "Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad guy. Here, there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys," he said.

Pope Francis' reluctance to take sides in the conflict has raised eyebrows within and far beyond the Catholic Church. For weeks, while he deplored the suffering of the Ukrainians, the pope proceeded without naming Russia as the perpetrator.

He has more than once suggested that the West might have provoked the conflict.

Behind the pope's stance lies a combination of his wariness of a U.S.-dominated world order, his reluctance to be seen as siding with the West in geopolitical conflicts, and his ambitions for diplomatic outreach toward major non-Western powers in a multipolar world.

To some extent, his evenhanded diplomacy follows Vatican traditions of neutrality in international conflicts.

Pope Francis has in recent years sought a rapprochement with China, despite Beijing's crackdown on independent religion. The pope's approach to Russia also reflects his personal geopolitical vision, in part stemming from his background as the first Latin American pope. He is seeking to keep his distance from the West and wants to mediate among the world's major powers, according to longtime observers of his career.

Pope Francis has "a multipolar vision of the world," based on a recognition that "no one at this moment can think of having world hegemony, not even the United States," said Massimo Borghesi, a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Perugia and author of three books on Pope Francis.

Paul Vallely, author of two books on Pope Francis, said the pontiff "sees his role as pontifex -- bridge builder -- rather than as the issuer of moral condemnations."

The pope has twice suggested in public comments that conflict in Ukraine may have been provoked by enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Massimo Franco, correspondent for Italian daily Corriere della Sera and author of three books about the pope, said the pontiff's wariness of NATO, and by implication the U.S., reflects his Argentine origins. Latin America "is a continent colonized by the United States for years and years and so he tends to see the United States as the country of the military system and aggressive capitalism," Mr. Franco said.

Mr. Vallely says the pope's experience of U.S. economic dominance over Argentina instilled in him not hostility to the U.S. per se but a belief that "superpowers are bad for ordinary people in the rest of the world."" [1]

1. The Ukraine Crisis: Pope's Past Shapes U.S.-Wary Stance
Rocca, Francis X. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 24 June 2022: A.10.