UA ambassador slams Pope's statement about supposed "humanism inherent in russians"
Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Oksana Markarova commented on the words of Pope Francis about the supposed "humanism inherent in russians."
The ambassador wrote about this on Facebook.
"Sorry, I can't help it. The Pope must have read Dostoyevsky somehow carelessly. Otherwise, His Holiness would not be surprised by the cruelty of russians (which is precisely their natural characteristic). And several other works of russian writers/poets, including Pushkin, Kuprin, and Bulgakov, and even a superficial study of the true history of our region would show that there was no humanism in Muscovy either under Ivan the Terrible in 1547 or in 1708, when Baturyn was brutally massacred, or in every event after that…" Markarova noted.
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Earlier, in response to a question from journalists on his return from Bahrain, Pope Francis said that "cruelty is not characteristic of the russian people."
"I am amazed—and that is why I use the word 'long-suffering' (literally: 'martoriata' means 'subjected to torment' from 'martoriare' meaning 'to torture, torment')—by this cruelty, which is not characteristic of the russian people, perhaps … because the russian people is a great nation; it is (the cruelty – ed.) of mercenaries, soldiers who go to war as an adventure, mercenaries… I prefer to think so because I greatly respect the russian people for russian humanism. It is enough to mention that Dostoevsky inspires and motivates Christians to understand Christianity. I have great affection for the russian people, as well as great affection for the Ukrainian people," the Pope said.
He also said that at 11, he knew a Ukrainian priest who taught him to serve during the Ukrainian liturgy. And because of this, according to the pontiff, he really likes the Ukrainian liturgy.
"I found myself between two peoples for whom I have affection," added Pope Francis. "And not only me. The Holy See held many confidential meetings with positive results."
The pontiff also said that the current war is a "world war."
"Within one century, we had three world wars! 1914-1918, 1938-1945, and the current one. Because this is a world war, the truth is that when empires weaken one way or the other, they need to wage war to feel strong and sell weapons. Because today, in my opinion, the biggest disaster in the world is the production of weapons… if we did not produce weapons for a year, there would be an end to world hunger. The weapons industry is terrible," the Pope added.
