March 15, 2024 (EIRNS)—The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell apparently found Pope Francis’s March 9 comment—that it would be a display of courage by Kiev to raise a “white flag” and negotiate with Russia—to qualify the Pope as being outside of the civilized world. Various geopoliticians have taken umbrage this week at the Pope raising the issue of a negotiated peace. However, Borrell, in an interview yesterday on Spanish public radio RNE, provided his own unique spin: “The Holy Pope entered a garden where no one invited him….”
Admittedly it is not absolutely clear what was meant, but Borrell is famous for referring to civilized Europe as the garden, and the rest of the world outside of the garden as uncivilized. Until Borrell provides some other explanation for his image, it seems that the Pope, speaking out of place, finds himself in an uncivilized land.
Otherwise, Borrell offered the qualification that he believes “that now is not the moment when it is necessary to offer Ukraine to surrender. On the contrary, this is the moment when we need to continue to help.” The Pope may be too civilized to say it, but perhaps helping more Ukrainians to die for your own corrupt cause is what those do who truly lack courage.
