On Ukraine war, Pope wants to move away from Little Red Riding Hood pattern

Pope Francis, the
leader of the Roman Catholic church, said the Russia-Ukraine war cannot be seen
as a simplistic battle between good and evil and that the invasion of Ukraine
was “perhaps somehow provoked”. The 87-year-old pontiff has largely maintained
a neutral position on the Ukraine conflict, speaking out about it in terms of
the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in eastern Europe. In an earlier statement,
the Pope had called upon the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to not become
Putin’s “altar boy”.

But now, the Pope
has taken a nuanced view of the context of the crisis and decided that taking a
side in this war is not as easy as it seems. “We need to move away from the
usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good
and the wolf was the bad one,” Pope Francis told La Civilta Cattolica, a Jesuit
magazine. “Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined,”
he said.

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The interview with
La Civilta Cattolica happened last month and was published on Tuesday. Francis
said that he met a head of state nearly two months before the war, who he did
not name, but described as “a wise man who speaks very little, a very wise man
indeed.” The Pope said the “wise man” told him that he was worried how NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was moving.

“I asked him why,
and he replied: ‘They are barking at the gates of Russia. They don’t understand
that the Russians are imperial and cannot have any foreign power getting close
to them.’”. “We do not see the whole drama unfolding behind this war, which was
perhaps, somehow either provoked or not prevented.”

The Pope’s message
is an indictment of the West’s narrativization of the Ukraine war which seeks
to cast Russia as the soul aggressor. Pope Francis said he was not “pro-Putin”
and that “it would be simplistic and wrong to say such a thing.”

The head of the
Roman Catholic church further said Russia had miscalculated its move to invade
Ukraine. “It’s also true that the Russians thought it will all be over in a
week. They encountered a brave people, a people who are struggling to survive
and who have a history of struggle.”

On Tuesday
morning, Pope Francis said the invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the
country’s right of self-determination. “The war in Ukraine has now been added
to the regional wars that for years have taken a heavy toll of death and
destruction,” the Pope said, in his message for the Roman Catholic church’s
World Day of the Poor.