Papal Statement on China, Ukraine war justification, and the morality of arming nations (Sep. 2022)

| Conferenza stampa di Papa Francesco sul volo di ritorno dal Kazakistan - TV2000 |

On the People’s Republic of China: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxBU-jvmMCPAdq9FoIGxP-l_VnYJCJAv4B

On the Ukraine-Russia War: (1) https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxlrQJ3OIFwKUcB1rNAlewkQVRZ193AI4H (2) https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxK71MOFeE79bZZZ1MBCTx8IgTmrMDJ6hZ

On the morality of arming a country: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx0HMdihPEJZM8OJ3NuFinbUImJ-H-sCTC

Summary:

On 15 September 2022, Pope Francis stated that selling weapons to another nation can be “morally acceptable if done under the conditions of morality,” he said. But “immoral if done with intentions of making more war” or to profit from it in some way, he added. The Russian cause of self-defense is “not only licit, it’s also an expression of love toward one’s homeland,” the pope explained. Reflecting on the Catholic concept of a “just war,” Pope Francis stated an equivalency between the Russian military intervention in Armenia-Azerbaijan and the Russian military action in Ukraine, both being actions being done in Russia’s role as “Guarantor of Peace”. Pope Francis also commented on the People’s Republic of China, stating that it is unfair to label it undemocratic due to China's complex system involving many different cultures and ethnicities.

While the pope condemned the Russian intervention into Ukraine as imprudent in late February, some of his positions on the conflict have evolved in a manner that angered Kiev. Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrey Yurash, condemned him in August for condemning the assassination of Russian journalist and political commentator Darya Dugina.

Other papal comments on the Ukraine conflict -

May 3, 2022. Corriere della Sera. Pope Francis: «I am ready to meet Putin in Moscow»:

- Francis repeated comments he had made in general audiences and in other interviews that the war is nothing more than a giant opportunity for a “trade in arms” and that it is still ongoing because of the constant shuttling of weapons to Ukraine.

- The Holy Father recalled his many attempts at stopping the conflict. “The first day of war I called the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the phone,” the pope said, recalling his communication with the Ukrainian president in which he urged him not to fight against Russia.

- On the arming of Ukraine the pope stated, “this is what happened in the Spanish Civil War, before the Second World War. The production and the sale of armaments is a disgrace, but few are bold enough to stand up against it.”

- «I don’t want to take any credit for the alarm I raised in the past, it was a mere observation of what was really happening. Syria, Yemen, Iraq. In Africa, a string of conflicts one after the other. And in each and every one of them, there are international interests at stake. It’s unthinkable that a free state can unleash a war against another free state. In Ukraine, the conflict was triggered by other actors. “The Ukrainians can’t be blamed for having fought back in the Donbass.” We are talking of ten years ago. It’s an outdated argument. The Ukrainians are prideful people, that’s for sure. During the Way of the Cross we had two ladies, a Russian and a Ukrainian, who were asked to read the prayers together. The Ukrainians were outraged».

May 19, 2022. Pope Francis in Conversation with the Editors of European Jesuit Journals:

- NATO started the war in Ukraine by “barking at the gates of Russia.”

- “We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was perhaps somehow either provoked or not prevented. And note the interest in testing and selling weapons. It is very sad, but at the end of the day that is what is at stake.”

- “The world is at war. A few years ago it occurred to me to say that we are living the third world war piece by piece. For me, today, World War III has been declared. This is something that should give us pause for thought. What is happening to humanity that we have had three world wars in a century? I lived the first war through my grandfather’s experience on the Piave River. And then the second and now the third. This is bad for humanity, a calamity. To think that in one century there have been three world wars, with all the arms trade behind them!”

On 21 August 2022, Pope Francis had an address in which he directly rebuked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:

“[I] call on the President of Ukraine with confidence, urging him to be open to peace proposals.”
This statement by Pope Francis directly rebuked Zelensky’s rejection of all negotiations with the Russian Federation.
Zelensky’s statement on negotiations with Russia: “Ukraine will not hold any negotiations with Russia as long as Putin is the president of the Russian Federation.”