The Economist has pronounced that “Pope Francis Has Failed To Be a Spiritual Mediator in Ukraine,” as reads the headline on its online Dec. 20 premature obituary for any Vatican role in helping foster an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
“Yet as Christmas nears, it is clear that Francis’s efforts to position himself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine have failed. The Pope is an outsider in a clash between two mostly Orthodox countries. He has also repeatedly antagonized both Ukrainians and Russians with his statements and omissions,” the City of London weekly mouthpiece wrote, before listing its view of Vatican “zigzagging” in its denunciations of Russia since February 2022.
The Pope’s failure to bow to the imperial Western unipolar narrative of the West is denounced as his fundamental sin: “But the first Latin American pope also has a deep mistrust of the United States and believes that the Vatican’s place lies somewhere between the West and its enemies. His failure to see the obvious in Ukraine highlights the limits of such attempted equidistance.” (https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/12/20/pope-francis-has-failed-to-be-a-spiritual-mediator-in-ukraine )
The headline on this article in its print edition, The Economist informs, is “No Room in the Middle.”
