The head of the press service of the Vatican Matteo Bruni explained the meaning of Pope Francisʼ speech to Russian youth.
Vatican News writes about it.
According to Bruni, the Pope sought to encourage young people to preserve and develop all the positive things that are in the "great Russian cultural and spiritual heritage."
Instead, Francis did not want to glorify imperialist logic and Russian statesmen.
- On August 25, Pope Francis addressed the participants of the 10th All-Russian Day of Catholic Youth in St. Petersburg via video link. There he called on Russians to never give up their heritage, because "you are the descendants of the great Mother Russia, step forward with it." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that the Kremlin justifies the killing of Ukrainians and the destruction of Ukraine with such imperialist propaganda, and expressed regret that Russian great-power ideas come from the Pope. The Popeʼs speech was also criticized by the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Sviatoslav, saying that the words of Francis contradict his doctrine of peace.