Popesplaining.

Sigh. . . 

March 10, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

Pope Francis stated in an interview with a Swiss journalist:

In Ucraina c’è chi chiede il coraggio della resa, della bandiera bianca. Ma altri dicono che così si legittimerebbe il più forte. Cosa pensa?

“È un’interpretazione. Ma credo che è più forte chi vede la situazione, chi pensa al popolo, chi ha il coraggio della bandiera bianca, di negoziare. E oggi si può negoziare con l’aiuto delle potenze internazionali. La parola negoziare è una parola coraggiosa. Quando vedi che sei sconfitto, che le cose non vanno, occorre avere il coraggio di negoziare. Hai vergogna, ma con quante morti finirà? Negoziare in tempo, cercare qualche paese che faccia da mediatore. Oggi, per esempio nella guerra in Ucraina, ci sono tanti che vogliono fare da mediatore. La Turchia, si è offerta per questo. E altri. Non abbiate vergogna di negoziare prima che la cosa sia peggiore”.

Anche lei stesso si è proposto per negoziare?

“Io sono qui, punto. Ho inviato una lettera agli ebrei di Israele, per riflettere su questa situazione. Il negoziato non è mai una resa. È il coraggio per non portare il paese al suicidio. Gli ucraini, con la storia che hanno, poveretti, gli ucraini al tempo di Stalin quanto hanno sofferto….”.

Translated:

In Ukraine there are those who ask for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“It's an interpretation. But I believe that those who see the situation, those who think about the people, those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger. And today it can be negotiated with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, look for some country to act as a mediator. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey offered itself for this. And other. Don't be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.

Have you also offered to negotiate?

“I'm here, period. I sent a letter to the Jews of Israel to reflect on this situation. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide. The Ukrainians, with the history that they have, poor things, the Ukrainians at Stalin's time, how much they suffered...”.

This has been reported, in accurately, as the Pope calling upon the Ukrainians to surrender, which isn't exactly what he said. 

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was in the US, calling up Congress to free up support for Ukraine.

March 11, 2024

Russo Ukrainian War

The Pope's comments of yesterday have brought rebuke.

One of the odd aspects of personality is that certain people can be really bad at speaking and not be aware of it, and even enjoy public speaking, while some highly articulate people immensely dislike speaking, publically or even in general, and eschew it.

Our talents are unevenly distributed.

Pope Francis is one of the most confusing people to listen to in regard to speaking that's in the current public eye.  We have others, I'd note, that far surpass him in that category, so he's not unique in that way in any fashion.  The Pope, additionally, seemingly likes to speak, and so he gives interviews to reporters and says things essentially off the cuff.  As he is, of course, the Pope, nearly anything he says will be reported.

More often than not, whatever he says will not only be reported, but reported badly, which compounds any confusion his statements cause.  He's not free from responsibility for this, however, as by this point in time he ought to know that will happen.  And not only will it happen, it will undercut his ability to convey a message.

Examples of this abound, and not just in the spoken word, but in the written one, and even just in messaging.  We just went through, for example, the entire agonizing series of events caused by Fiducia Supplicans. Released just before Christmas, and not penned by the Pope but endorsed by him, it resulted in a series of nearly immediate explanations as to what it was saying and not saying.  That situation has semi stabilized, but we're now seeing Bishops act on the followups and basically opt out of the option provided for, which the explanations allow for.  As this was occurring Pope Francis made a comment about the African Church which was cultural in nature which even if it was correct, was culturally insensitive and may frankly shed more of a light on what the culture in the dying West holds as opposed to the culture in the remainder of the globe.

All this caused one Catholic commentator to note who many Catholics are by now simply "weary" in regard to things coming from Pope Francis. We wrote on this earlier, and I'd count myself as weary.

"We are weary".

Of course, that hasn't stopped Pope Francis from giving interviews.

Now, of course a person could simply state, why should it?  Well, the answer is that it's making us all the more weary, and we have a lot to be weary about.  We're weary due to trying to understand Fiducia Supplicans, we're wearing due to the vague nature of the Synod on Synodality, which is still ongoing, we're wearing from trying to grasp why Fr. James Martin, S.J., continues to seemingly get a pass while Cardinal Dolan does not, and we're weary from waiting for the Pope to do something about the German Church. 

And now we have this.

To be fair, as is often the case, what Pope Francis says is often inaccurately reported, and interestingly the conservative things he says, and there are definitely a set of them, aren't reported on hardly at all.  Here, Pope Francis didn't really tell the Ukrainians to surrender, which is how it is being reported.

In Ukraine there are those who ask for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the strongest. What do you think?

“It's an interpretation. But I believe that those who see the situation, those who think about the people, those who have the courage to raise the white flag and to negotiate are stronger. And today it can be negotiated with the help of international powers. The word negotiate is a courageous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you need to have the courage to negotiate. You are ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time, look for some country to act as a mediator. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to act as mediators. Turkey offered itself for this. And other. Don't be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.

Have you also offered to negotiate?

“I'm here, period. I sent a letter to the Jews of Israel to reflect on this situation. Negotiation is never a surrender. It is the courage not to lead the country to suicide. The Ukrainians, with the history that they have, poor things, the Ukrainians at Stalin's time, how much they suffered...”.

I don't know what the Swiss journalist's intent was, but Pope Francis really walked into it.  The journalist asked if the Ukrainians should surrender.  The Pope didn't say "yes," he said that they should negotiate a peace.  Lots of people have said that who support Ukraine and back-channel, where people speak their honest opinions, no serious person believes that Ukraine can achieve something like an unconditional surrender from Russia. There's going to have to be some sort of negotiation. The question is what does that look like. Finland in 1944?  Russia would regard that as a defeat, and Ukraine ought to regard that as a victory.

So what he said wasn't really "Surrender", and it isn't really all that different from what many Ukrainian supporters have said.  But the reporter used the term "white flag" and he picked right up on it.

Sigh.

Weary.