The Pope said what the other world lives by, which the "rotten" West forgets

  "After hearing the statements of Pope Francis that Russia is a great nation, antagonism arose in Lithuania, almost everyone spoke out - from the young uneducated man to the consecrated elite. The official Vilnius also reacted, calling the Apostle Nuncio to discuss the statements of Pope Francis about Russia, thus ignoring the reality of what the global world lives in the world outside of Europe and the United States of America.

 

     Although Gitanas Nausėda began to reason that the Pope is only an authority of faith, but not of history, the Argentinian Jorgė Mario Bergoglio said a lot of truth, i.e.  what the "rotten" West does not want to hear, to listen to, but scientists of politics and international relations are talking about it more and more often - that there are more continents than Europe, where both conflicts and wars have become almost everyday and to which Europe does not lend its hand, that the West applies double standards when assessing conflicts in the world, so that the events in Ukraine can be looked at with other eyes - as a struggle of interests, a dispute over a new global world order.

 

     After receiving criticism for his remarks, Francis clarified or "decoded" his speech to those who "didn't understand" or didn't really want to understand, saying that he was talking about Russian cultural heritage in order to reassure China that the Catholic Church has no ulterior motives and should not be judged as a foreign power.

 

     On the other hand, even this statement can be understood as an allusion to the great powers that often set out to dictate the world order, which Mathias Spector, professor of international relations at the Getulis Vargas Foundation (FGV), visiting scholar at Princeton University, said in the "Foreing Affairs interview" show that "the only thing that really motivates the Global South to resist is that US national interests are couched in the language of moral superiority, when in fact everyone knows there is a big gap between words and deeds."

 

     Thus, Francis spoke about power, which is a very important concept in international relations, often defining the power of great powers, including, among others, the United States of America, China, Russia, to dictate, to shape geopolitical policies, often pointing a hand at human rights violations when it related to their interests, but putting on the global agenda those issues that will suit them. Although the US criticizes Russia, as Mr. Spector notes, US support for autocracies has continued throughout America's tenure as a great power since 1945.

 

     "Of the 50 countries that Freedom House identifies as dictatorships, the United States provides military aid to 35," Spector notes.

 

     When interpreting Francis' speech in the context of the events in Ukraine, Lithuania should remember that the Pope broadcasts the attitudes of another world, which is foreign and unfamiliar to Lithuania - opposition to interventions and Western sanctions against countries that do not obey the ruling liberal order.

 

     For example, scholars Laertė Apolinário Júnior and Giovana Dias Branco note that the BRICS, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the Republic of South Africa, with Argentina, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia as new members, have followed in various institutional spaces pro-Russian neutrality, although it was not homogeneous, BRICS did not isolate Moscow internationally, on the contrary, it decided to maintain commercial and strategic partnership with Moscow.

 

     A study by the European Council on Foreign Affairs (ECFR) revealed that while US President Joe Biden described the conflict as a struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, many Chinese residents believe that American and European support for Ukraine is driven by a desire to protect Western dominance. The vast majority of Chinese and Turks believe that Western support for Ukraine is not determined by the defense of Ukraine's territorial integrity or democracy, but by other reasons.

 

     Speaking about Russia as a great power, Francis reminded the West of the developing world's view of the world order dictated by the United States of America. Thus, the way the world is seen by the Global South, who see the West's ambitions to change the world order how it was written by Linas Kojala, was broadcast.

 

     John Allen, editor of the Catholic news portal Crux, also links the pontiff's attitude to Francis' Argentine past and "Third World criticism of the West", saying that this may be the basis of the Pope's position regarding the events in Ukraine, since Francis has taken a position that brings him closer to Beijing. New Delhi and Brazil - Global South.

 

     "Francis is the first pontiff from the developing world in history, and he is ruling at a time when Catholicism's demographic center of gravity has clearly shifted." Today, more than two-thirds of the 1.3 billion of the world's Catholics do not live in the West, and by the middle of the century this part will make up three quarters. In such a world  it is quite logical that the geopolitical orientation of the Vatican is increasingly directed towards, say, India, the African Union, or even OPEC countries, rather than Washington and Brussels," wrote J. Allen.

 

     As noted by the editorial board of the elite political science magazine "Foreign Affairs", the events in Ukraine brought Western allies closer together, but did not unite the democracies of the world in the way that US President Mr. Biden had hoped. On the contrary, recent years have shown how differently most of the rest of the world sees not only events in Ukraine, but also the world.

 

     Tellingly, this year's United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in which, in order to reduce tensions between the Western world and the Global South, refused to pay more attention to the conflict in Ukraine (as the Global South calls the events in Ukraine) and provided for discussions on climate change, debt relief and ways to help struggling countries to achieve the UN development goals related to well-being, health, development, education and gender equality.

 

     Even more eloquent than the agenda of the UN General Assembly itself is the fact that even four out of five world leaders whose countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council, including the leaders of China, France, Russia, and Great Britain, did not appear at the General Assembly held in New York.

 

     In addition, another world leader - the Prime Minister of India - did not come. This is a sign of opposition to the agenda imposed by the Western world. Thus, the Pope's rhetoric corresponded to the mood prevailing among the leaders of the global world and was actualized in the UN General Assembly."

 

Evening has come to the West. Let's pray.