The Vatican and Russia: A Diplomatic Mission Tested by War and Propaganda

The useful part

is the world's largest Catholic news organization, comprised of television, radio, print and digital media outlets, dedicated to reporting the truth in light of the Gospel and the Catholic Church. That power of moral witness is the only real power the Holy See has in world politics. 24-28, meeting with senior officials of the Putin regime and the Russian Orthodox Church.

How it works

• There is a cost to be paid for such forbearance, however, if the lies go unchallenged indefinitely.
• So just how is a "very cordial, fraternal relationship" possible under those circumstances?
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What to take from it

A Ukrainian-American friend, who was in Ukraine at the time, found the visit "surreal" — perhaps because the Russians marked the archbishop's diplomatic mission, not by any gestures toward peace, but by intensifying their murderous missile and drone strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Lavrov is an experienced and polished liar, who ought not be believed if he announced that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning. Nonetheless, his choice of words was instructive, if only in demonstrating what he thought he could get away with in the presence of a very senior Vatican official.

Example or evidence

• It seems highly unlikely that Metropolitan Antonij, who owes his position to Kirill, is of a different cast of mind than the patriarch.
• Jonah McKeown/CNA Vatican Ukrainian Archbishop Borys Gudziak on Catholic Faith, Children and Truth As Ukrainian Catholics brace for another Christmas in the midst of war, Archbishop Gudziak reminds us all,...
• Archbishop Gallagher also met with Metropolitan Antonij of Volokolamsk, responsible for the "external relations" (meaning both ecumenism and international relations) of the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Doesn't that very suggestion further forestall the day when a serious ecumenical theological conversation with Russian Orthodoxy is possible?

Details worth keeping

Russia | National Catholic Register A Service of EWTN News, Inc. Today's world is desperate for serious moral leadership. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Vatican envoy and Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations of the Holy See, leads a mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary in Moscow on August 27, 2026.

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