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A detailed affiliate of Pope Francis is defending the Vatican’s determination to have a Russian girl and a Ukrainian girl carry the cross collectively throughout a Good Friday procession in Rome
ROME — A detailed affiliate of Pope Francis on Wednesday defended the Vatican’s determination to have a Russian girl and a Ukrainian girl carry the cross collectively throughout a Good Friday procession that might be presided over by the pontiff.
On Tuesday, each the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See and the archbishop of Kyiv blasted the selection given Russia’s invasion and warfare in Ukraine. The ladies are each nurses who work collectively at a Rome hospital.
Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Yurash tweeted that he “understands and shares common concern in Ukraine and plenty of different communities about thought to carry collectively Ukrainian and Russian ladies” to hold the cross throughout a part of the procession on Friday.
“Now we’re engaged on the problem making an attempt to elucidate difficulties of its realization and attainable penalties,” the ambassador mentioned.
The torchlit procession at at Rome’s Colosseum is a standard a part of the Vatican’s Holy Week observances.
The Vatican did not instantly remark.
Responding to the criticism, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest in Rome who’s near Francis, defended the pairing of the Russian and Ukrainian ladies for the solemn procession.
“It’s important to perceive one factor” in regards to the pope, Spadaro informed Italian state radio community RAI on Wednesday. “He is a pastor, not a politician.”
Spadaro ventured that the picture of the 2 ladies carrying the cross collectively was upsetting “as a result of they characterize one thing that may’t be obtained” now — “peace.”
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who relies in Kyiv and heads the Greek-Catholic church in Ukraine, additionally denounced the pairing.
“I think about this concept inopportune and ambiguous,” Shevchuk mentioned, including that it “would not consider the context of the Russian navy aggression in opposition to Ukraine.”
Shevchuk additionally decried the wording of a meditation that the Vatican had mentioned could be learn aloud because the nurses clutch the tall, light-weight cross. It reads, “We would like our life again as earlier than. Why all of this? What improper did we do? Why have you ever forsaken us? Why have you ever forsaken our peoples?”
The phrases, mixed with the cross-carrying gesture, “are incomprehensible and even offensive,” the Greek-Catholic prelate mentioned. .
The meditation was scripted based mostly on the experiences of the households of the Russian and Ukrainian ladies, whose households additionally plan to take part within the procession, the Vatican has mentioned.
The ladies, interviewed on Italian state TV earlier within the week, have expressed satisfaction with their function within the procession and burdened their friendship.
The pope didn’t point out the controversy throughout his public viewers on Wednesday. However he denounced “the armed aggression of today” as “an outrage in opposition to God.”
Francis has pressed for an Easter cease-fire in Ukraine. Easter falls on April 17 for a lot of Christians this yr.
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