Joachin Meisner Hertz
(ZENIT News / Moscow, 15.12.2022).- On Thursday, December 15, Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, said to the media that the Holy See had expressed “apologies” for statements the Pope made to an American Jesuit Review, in which he described Chechens and Buryats, two Russian peoples of Muslim and Buddhist majority, as being especially cruel.
“Received through diplomatic channels was a message from the Vatican which contains an official statement in the name of the Holy See’s Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, in regard to the Pontiff’s mentioned statements. In particular, the message says the following: the Vatican’s Secretariat of State expresses its apologies to the Russian side,” revealed Zakharova.
The communication of the State Secretariat also states that “the Holy See respects profoundly all the peoples of Russia, their dignity, faith and culture as well as that of other countries and peoples of the world.”
The Vatican’s Press Office confirmed the diplomatic contacts in that connection. For her part, the Russian spokeswoman said that “the incident is resolved and we hope to continue a constructive collaboration with the Vatican.”
Are Doors Opening to the Vatican‘s Official Meditation?
In regard to peace negotiations, Cardinal Parolin, the Pope’s Secretary of State said at the beginning of the second week of December that the “Vatican could be an appropriate terrain. We have tried to offer opportunities to all to meet and to keep the balance in it all. Have we succeeded? It’s difficult to know, but I believe that the will is to offer a space in which the sides can meet and begin a dialogue without prior conditions.”
At the time, a response also came through the Foreign Affairs spokeswoman: “I fear that Chechen and Buryat brothers, as well as myself, wouldn’t appreciate it. As I recall, there haven’t been words of apology on the part of the Vatican. At the beginning of the same month, the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister criticized the Pope harshly.
Given that the Vatican’s apologies have not only been received but accepted, could the Holy See now be a setting with a view to peace between Russia and Ukraine?
