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The Vatican is following developments in the war in Ukraine with the utmost attention, advocating for an end to the fighting and for negotiation between the parties
By Loup Besmond de Senneville | Vatican City
It is considered to be a highly symbolic and spiritual initiative to show the Holy See's deep concern over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The Vatican this week announced that Pope Francis will consecrate both counties to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penance service on March 25 in St. Peter's Basilica.
The papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, will pronounce the same action simultaneously at the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Portugal.
The announcement of the initiative came three weeks after the Kremlin sent tanks and troops into Ukraine.
It also came a day before the pope's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was to preside at a "Mass for Peace" on Wednesday in St. Peter's before foreign ambassadors and diplomats who represent their countries to the Holy See.
Both liturgies are meant to be signs of Francis' and the Roman Church's commitment to work and pray for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine, which the Vatican's diplomatic service has been following carefully.
After having called for calm and for de-escalation before the beginning of the war, the pope has intensified his speeches and symbolic gestures in recent weeks.
For instance, he went to the Russian Embassy at the Holy See as the initial bombs were falling on Ukrainian territory.
It was a very unusual move that was followed by telephone calls to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as to the Greek-Catholic archbishop of Kyiv, Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
Since then, Francis and the Vatican's diplomatic wing have focused on three areas.
First, they have urged people to pray for peace.
Then, they have offered humanitarian assistance, symbolically sending two cardinals who are close collaborators to visit refugees in countries on the Ukrainian border.
And, finally, they have offered to do anything that is asked to help mediate an end to the crisis.
The Church's diplomats are well aware that the Vatican cannot directly lead any mediation, but they look favorably upon the proposal formulated by Sant'Egidio Community, which involves entrusting the former German chancellor Angela Merkel with the mission of leading negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
"She would be very well placed to do so, provided, of course, that she has a mandate from both sides," said a Sant'Egidio official.
But over the last several days, the pope has been criticized – including by some Ukrainian Catholic leaders – for not clearly calling out Russian as the aggressor at the start of the invasion.
But the reality is that the Vatican is trying to maintain a delicate balance.
On the one hand, Francis has used very strong words to condemn the current events. During the Sunday Angelus on March 13, for instance, he exclaimed, "In the name of God I ask you: stop this massacre!"
The previous Sunday he pointed out that there was a "war" going on in Ukraine and "not merely a military operation", contradicting Moscow's propaganda and rhetoric.
But on the other hand, the pope has never explicitly named Russia or called it the "aggressor", respecting a form of neutrality, traditional in the Holy See.
"We are neutral, but not indifferent," said one cardinal.
Some 350,000 Catholics live in the Russian Federation.
"And Francis always wants to leave doors open for dialogue. It is a trait of his personality," said one Church source.
"John Paul II would probably have been much more explicit: but that was another time, and he was Polish," he said.
"John Paul II was Slavic, perfectly aware of the religious geography of Ukraine, with its Greek-Catholic component, very anti-Russian, having some Latin Catholics, as well as Orthodox belonging to two major branches of Orthodoxy," explained Bernard Lecomte, a specialist on the Vatican and an expert on Eastern Europe.
"His personal policy was exactly the opposite of the 'ostpolitik' which had enabled John XXIII to play a decisive role in defusing the Cuban Missile Crisis between the Soviets and Americans in 1962," Lecomte said.
"Francis, on the other hand, does not understand what is happening," he said.
The pope has a personal connection with Shevchuk, the Major Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, who was serving in Argentina from 2009-2011 when Francis was still cardinal-archbishop of Buenos Aires.
But despite that, the pope considers it rather important to leave Vladimir Putin a way out to avoid an all-out war.
It is a way to "always leave an open window to the possibility of stopping evil and saving human lives", wrote the Vatican media official, Andrea Tornielli, in an editorial this week in L'Osservatore Romano.
Since the beginning of the war, the Vatican's daily newspaper has had multiple front pages on Ukraine, not hesitating to describe the conflict as a "war of aggression" or pointing directly at the responsibility of the Russian president.
In addition to traditional diplomatic ties, the Vatican also has another way to talk to the Russian – through its religious dialogue with the Moscow Patriarchate.
"The Vatican has a direct link with the Orthodox Church in Russia. It is a channel that no one else has," said Prime Minister Eduard Hegerthe of Slovakia last Monday after a private meeting with the pope.
"It is important not to break" with the Patriarchate of Moscow
Despite any tensions, Rome's links with the Patriarchate still exist.
"It is important not to break them," said a Vatican source.
Some in Rome are even urging the pope to set up a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, following up on their 2106 encounter in Cuba.
"Even if the patriarch used unacceptable arguments to justify the war, such a conversation would make sense," insisted one Vatican expert.
Church officials in Rome and Moscow were actually working on a meeting between the pope and patriarch for June, but with the war, that is no longer on the agenda.
Beyond a hypothetical telephone conversation between the two Christian leaders, the Vatican is also betting a lot on "cultural" collaboration, which notably includes scholarships granted to Orthodox seminarians to study in pontifical universities in Rome.
In order to promote such collaboration, the Holy See routinely undertakes different "invisible actions", as described by a source quite familiar with how papal diplomacy works.
""Even in the most closed countries, we always make sure to maintain possible points of contact," this source said.
At the United Nations, the Holy See has permanent observer status, which allows it to participate in discussions but without the right to vote.
"We have to work on the afterwards," said the same source.
"One day, the war will end, and peace will have to be rebuilt," he pointed out.
"The Church is looking at the long term, because the goal is the salvation of the world, that is, of all people, and not the victory of one nation over another," this source continued.
"In the long term, we are in a logic of reconciliation. And for that, there are a certain number of things that are at stake right now."
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