Pope Francis did not intend to \u201cglorify imperialistic logic\u201d in off-the-cuff remarks last week about expansionist 18th-century Russian rulers, the Vatican said on Tuesday, seeking to calm an outcry over comments that some critics said were too close to President Vladimir V. Putin\u2019s justifications for invading Ukraine.<\/p>\n
In a video speech to young Russian Catholics on Friday, \u201cThe Pope intended to encourage the youth to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great Russian cultural and spiritual legacy,\u201d the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said in a statement. \u201cSurely not to glorify imperialistic logic and government personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the conclusion of his speech, in which Francis encouraged young Catholic Russians to build bridges between generations and spread seeds of reconciliation, he invoked the legacy of the \u201cGreat Russia of saints, rulers, Great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire \u2014 great, enlightened, of great culture and great humanity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Those comments appeared to deviate from his prepared remarks, which were released in a Vatican bulletin that did not mention the extemporaneous references to the two former Russian tsars, who invaded parts of Ukraine in the 18th centuries.<\/p>\n
Those comments were immediately criticized in Ukraine and in other former Soviet countries. Mr. Putin, who compared himself to Peter the Great in a speech last year, has mentioned the idea of rebuilding the Russian empire in connection with the war in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in three decades ago.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Ukraine\u2019s Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, wrote on Facebook that it was \u201cvery unfortunate that Russian grand-state ideas, which, in fact, are the cause of Russia\u2019s chronic aggression, knowingly or unknowingly, come from the Pope\u2019s mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, also expressed \u201cpain\u201d and \u201cdisappointment\u201d over the pope\u2019s remarks, which he said contradicted Francis\u2019 doctrine of peace.<\/p>\n