“A few years ago, it occurred to me to say that we are experiencing World War III in bits and pieces. Here, for me today World War Three has already been declared,” Pope Francis said during an interview with the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica, excerpts of which were published today by Vatican News under the headline “War cannot be reduced to distinction between good guys and bad guys.” He warns, “This is an aspect that should make us reflect. What is happening to humanity that has had three world wars in a century? And this is bad for humanity, it’s a calamity. You have to think that in a century there have been three world wars with all the arms trade behind it!”.
Aspects of the Pope’s analysis are flawed, in that he asserts simplistically that it is the Russian troops, along with the mercenaries that he says they rely on, that are incredibly brutal in their treatment of the “heroic” and “martyred” Ukrainian people. He emphasizes, however, that it’s important to look behind the brutality of war, because “the danger is we see only this, which is monstrous, and miss the whole drama that is unfolding behind this war which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented. I also note the interest in testing and selling weapons.” He cautions that the current situation can’t be reduced to a distinction between good and bad guys, “without considering the roots and self-interests which are very complex. Here there are no metaphysical good guys and bad guys.”
Francis quoted from a conversation he had with an unnamed “head of state” a couple of months before Russia began its operation in Ukraine. This “very wise” person indicated that he was very concerned about “the way NATO was acting.” When Francis asked him why, this individual said, “They are barking at the gates of Russia, and they don’t understand that the Russians are imperial and they will not allow any foreign power to approach them. This situation could lead to war.”
The Pope expressed great concern that while people tend to react to the Ukraine war more immediately because it is geographically closer, there are wars raging in other far-away places—northern Nigeria, northern Congo—”and nobody cares.” What is before our eyes,” he said, “is a situation of world war, global interests, arms sales and geopolitical appropriation.”
