Russian experts saw the Vatican as an ally of Moscow
The Vatican remains a champion of traditional values, which explains the improvement in relations between the Holy See and Moscow.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, said Ekaterina Shebalina, a researcher at the Institute of International Studies of the MGIMO Institute of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“The Catholic Church, despite various “hype” statements of the pontiff (compassion for LGBT people, acts against Muslim migrants, etc.), did not change the canonical foundations, which still remain traditional. Despite attempts by some clergy (for example, in Germany) to bring about change, the Vatican is a champion of traditional values.
That is why good relations have developed between Russia and the Holy See over the last decade,” Shebalina told Izvestia.
She recalled that during his speech in the European Parliament eight years ago, the pontiff compared Europe to a “barren woman” “losing her soul”, which the rest of the world looks at with “distrust and alienation”.
“Thus, long before the Ukrainian crisis, the Vatican said that Europe had “gone old” and was mired in its own problems,” the expert emphasized.
In turn, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, Valdai Club expert Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky drew attention to the joint efforts of Budapest and the Vatican aimed at quickly ending the Ukrainian conflict and preventing it from escalating into something larger.
“The Holy See calls for dialogue with Russia because it understands the need for consensus and does not accept the ideology of “strategic defeat” of Moscow. Viktor Orbán is in the same position, fearing that Hungary will be at the forefront if the crisis widens. There is a common understanding of the fairness of Russia’s demands for guaranteed security and clear mechanisms for ensuring it following the conflict,” said Ofitserov-Belsky.
But Shebalina is convinced that the Vatican’s position is determined by very specific political interests.
“The Vatican has taken the position that since a conflict has arisen, it needs to use it to strengthen itself in the international arena. The Vatican, after a “difficult fate” (loss of territories, lack of an army, currency, etc.), is strengthening itself in the international arena through the role of a global intermediary, mediator. An opportunity has opened for the Holy See to prove its “effectiveness,” Shebalina believes.
As PolitNavigator reported, the Pope recently showered the Russian people with compliments, which caused fury in Ukraine.
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