Pope says Russian Orthodox patriarch shouldn’t act like ‘Putin’s altar boy’

Pope Francis mentioned in an interview printed Tuesday that he advised Patriarch Kirill — the chief of the Russian Orthodox Church — to not “remodel himself into Putin’s altar boy,” CNN reported Wednesday.

Francis advised the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he spoke with Kirill through Zoom for round 40 minutes on March 16. “The primary 20 minutes he learn to me, with a card in hand, all of the justifications for struggle,” Francis mentioned.

“I listened and advised him, ‘I do not perceive something about this. Brother, we aren’t clerics of state, we can not use the language of politics however that of Jesus,'” the pontiff continued.

Francis additionally confirmed that the 2 clerics had agreed to postpone a face-to-face assembly in Jerusalem that had been scheduled for June. “It might be an ambiguous sign,” the pontiff defined.

The Roman Catholic Church — of which Francis is head — break up with the Jap Orthodox Church in 1054. Jap Orthodoxy contains between 14 and 16 autocephalous (self-headed) church buildings, of which Kirill’s Russian Orthodox Church is by far the most important.

The week earlier than his Zoom name with Francis, Kirill, an in depth ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, described the struggle in Ukraine as a “metaphysical” battle in opposition to a godless worldwide order primarily based on “extra consumption” and “homosexual parades.”

Francis has repeatedly referred to as for peace in Ukraine. Final month, he kissed a flag from the Ukrainian metropolis of Bucha and lamented the “horrendous cruelty” Russian troopers confirmed to Bucha’s civilian inhabitants.

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