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The pope's consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary has marked an important step in the Vatican's spiritual response to the current war in Eastern Europe
By Loup Besmond de Senneville | Vatican City
He has urged people to fast and pray. He's called war a "sacrilege". And he has even likened youngsters being killed by bombs to the Child Jesus.
Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24, Pope Francis has supplemented the Vatican's diplomatic efforts with one spiritual message after another -- all in an effort to obtain peace in the region.
By consecrating Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a Lenten penance service on Friday evening in St. Peter's Basilica, he has taken another step in what some in Rome are quick to call the pope's "spiritual offensive".
The act of consecration, which is linked to the Marian apparitions that allegedly took place in 1917 in the Portuguese town of Fatima, is intimately linked to petitions for peace.
"(The pope) responds to the weapons of war with the weapons of prayer," said an expert on Orthodox Christianity who is close to the Vatican.
Francis' video conference with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on March 16 must also be seen in its spiritual context.
"The idea is to take the spiritual dimension of this conflict seriously," said one of the pope's closest aides.
Since the beginning of the war, the Vatican has been quite aware that the Russian Orthodox patriarch has sought to provide a theological justification for the conflict.
The difficulty for Francis is therefore to respond to Kirill on this religious ground, without being seen as the chaplain of the West, which popes have always refused to be.
It is a position that led him to state on March 13 that "God is only the God of peace, he is not the God of war, and those who support violence profane his name".
"With this consecration to the heart of Mary, Francis is trying to focus on the soul of Orthodoxy, to speak to a figure common to the Russian and Ukrainian worlds. It is a mystical process," said another of the pope's close advisers.
But the same source further explained this spiritual approach towards peace is in line with a similar initiative the pope held almost two years ago to the day at a time when the world had just entered another moment of deep crisis.
"He makes a clear connection with the March 27, 2020, prayer in St. Peter's Square," the papal aide said.
On that day, Francis prayed alone in an empty St. Peter's Square, imploring God's help in the face of the coronavirus pandemic that had just broken out. The images of that event went around the world.
"Two years later, we find ourselves in the same situation, faced with another major development which confirms that we have shifted into a new world," explained this close friend of Francis.
"We are on the verge of the third world war: for Francis, it is urgent to mobilize all spiritual forces," this person insisted.
Prayer, diplomacy and solidarity
In the Vatican, prayer is also closely linked to the diplomatic efforts undertaken since the beginning of the conflict.
"You don't put diplomacy in one box and spiritual activity in another," said one Holy See diplomat.
"If we are conducting this diplomacy, it is because we are Catholic," he said.
"There are different levels of action," said another Roman Curia official close to the pope, pointing out that these include prayer, diplomacy and solidarity.
It's as if these dimensions were somehow the floors of the same building.
"The pope, as a good Jesuit, applies this maxim: 'Pray as if everything depended on God, work as if everything depended on you'," the official said.
He said the pope is well aware that, while "God is the only Lord of history, he acts through the imperfect people that we are".
Indeed, the pope's numerous statements and initiatives concerning the war in Ukraine, especially his decision to consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, have left the diplomats working at the Holy See as perplexed as they are intrigued.
"It is certain that when one comes to pray, it is because the situation is not going well," said one of them.
"Given the situation on the ground, there is no political space left," said another.
"So, the pope is trying to play a different card, with a much more spiritual aspect. And it's a card that only the Vatican can play."
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