Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
NICOLE WINFIELD and KOSTYA MANENKOV
Mon, September 12, 2022
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis had hoped his trip to Kazakhstan this week would offer a chance to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church — who has justified the war in Ukraine — and plead for peace. Patriarch Kirill bowed out a few weeks ago, but Francis is going ahead with the trip that is nevertheless being overshadowed by Russia’s seven-month war.
Francis travels to the majority-Muslim former Soviet republic on Tuesday to minister to its tiny Catholic community and participate in a Kazakh-sponsored conference of world religious leaders. The conference had as its original goal to promote interfaith dialogue in the post-pandemic world, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given it a more immediate cause: for faith leaders from around the world to appeal for peace with a united voice.
“It will be an occasion to meet so many religious representatives and to dialogue as brothers, animated by the common desire for peace, the peace for which our world is thirsting,” Francis told thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
In a way, Kirill’s absence will make life easier for all involved: Kazakhstan won’t have its showcase gathering of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Shinto and Jewish leaders from 50 countries overshadowed by a headline-grabbing photo op between the pope and the patriarch. Francis won’t have the diplomatic headache of having to explain to Ukraine why he met with an ideological supporter of Russia’s war before Francis even visited Kyiv. And Kirill will avoid the embarrassment of being present when a global congress of imams, rabbis, ministers and a pope issues a final statement largely expected to denounce war.
But for Kazakhstan’s Catholic leaders, Kirill’s absence represents something of a lost opportunity.
“Personally I am pained,” said Bishop Adelio Dell’Oro of the Kazakh diocese of Karaganda. “I think a meeting between them on the sidelines of the congress would have been a notable contribution, notable in this process of peace to clarify what religions can contribute to human coexistence in the world. So I am disappointed, but you have to accept it.”
The interfaith congress is an important triennial event for Kazakhstan, a country that borders Russia to the north, China to the east and is home to some 130 ethnic groups: It’s a showpiece of its foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.
“We can say that Kazakhstan is really a place where dialogue is not some formal slogan, but this is a Kazakh brand," said Monsignor Piotr Pytlowany, spokesman for the Kazakh bishops conference. "Kazakhstan wants to share dialogue not only during this congress but also after it, offering the dialogue as one of the possible ways to resolve the various difficulties that the world now faces.”
When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s diversity while recalling its dark past under Stalinist repression: Entire villages of ethnic Poles were deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan beginning in 1936, and the Soviet government deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, Chechens and other accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan during World War II. Many of the deportees’ descendants remained and some of them make up the country’s Catholic community, which only numbers about 125,000 in a country of nearly 19 million.
Kazakh bishops had asked Francis to visit a former Soviet detention camp during his three-day visit, but the 85-year-old pope declined due to his strained knee ligaments, which have forced him to use a wheelchair and cane to get around.
His program has time for private meetings with religious leaders attending the congress. While the Vatican hasn’t released a list, expected participants include Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.
One visitor not currently on his agenda: Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected in Kazakhstan on his first foreign trip since the coronavirus pandemic. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said there were no current plans for any meeting and noted that Xi isn’t attending the religious conference. China and the Holy See haven’t had diplomatic relations for over a half-century.
Francis has repeatedly denounced Russia’s war in Ukraine as an unjust “violent aggression,” expressed solidarity with the “martyred” Ukrainian people and sent personal envoys to Ukraine to provide humanitarian and spiritual aid. At the same time, he has refrained from calling out Russia or President Vladimir Putin by name, trying to maintain a path of dialogue with Moscow in keeping with the Vatican’s diplomatic tradition of not taking sides in a conflict.
Kirill has justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on spiritual and ideological grounds, calling it a “metaphysical” battle with the West. He has blessed Russian soldiers going into battle and invoked the idea that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
The Kazakh congress would have provided a neutral location and coincidental excuse for their second-ever meeting, and both Kirill and Francis had originally confirmed their presence. But Kirill pulled out last month. A former Vatican ambassador to Moscow has suggested that grumblings within the Russian Orthodox hierarchy might have factored into Kirill’s decision.
Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall. Just last week, the general assembly of the World Council of Churches, a fellowship of more than 350 churches representing more than a half-billion Christians worldwide, denounced what it called an “illegal and unjustifiable” invasion and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which is a member of the WCC, refused to vote for the “politicized” declaration and complained about what it called “unprecedented pressure” on members to condemn Moscow and the Russian church.
Kazakhstan, for its part, has had to walk a thin line with the war. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions against Russia while trying to maintain close ties with Moscow, an important economic partner and ally. At the same time Tokayev refused to recognize the Russia-backed separatist “people’s republics” in Ukraine, which Moscow recognized days before invading Ukraine.
While Kazakhstan could have emerged as the mediator if Francis and Kirill had met, “maybe it’s even better that this is not happening because Kazakhstan would have looked like as a country that is getting involved in the Ukraine crisis, and this is the last thing that Kazakhstan wants to do right now,” said Temur Umarov, a Central Asia expert and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
___
Manenkov reported from Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
NICOLE WINFIELD and KOSTYA MANENKOV
Mon, September 12, 2022
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis had hoped his trip to Kazakhstan this week would offer a chance to meet with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church — who has justified the war in Ukraine — and plead for peace. Patriarch Kirill bowed out a few weeks ago, but Francis is going ahead with the trip that is nevertheless being overshadowed by Russia’s seven-month war.
Francis travels to the majority-Muslim former Soviet republic on Tuesday to minister to its tiny Catholic community and participate in a Kazakh-sponsored conference of world religious leaders. The conference had as its original goal to promote interfaith dialogue in the post-pandemic world, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given it a more immediate cause: for faith leaders from around the world to appeal for peace with a united voice.
“It will be an occasion to meet so many religious representatives and to dialogue as brothers, animated by the common desire for peace, the peace for which our world is thirsting,” Francis told thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
In a way, Kirill’s absence will make life easier for all involved: Kazakhstan won’t have its showcase gathering of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Shinto and Jewish leaders from 50 countries overshadowed by a headline-grabbing photo op between the pope and the patriarch. Francis won’t have the diplomatic headache of having to explain to Ukraine why he met with an ideological supporter of Russia’s war before Francis even visited Kyiv. And Kirill will avoid the embarrassment of being present when a global congress of imams, rabbis, ministers and a pope issues a final statement largely expected to denounce war.
But for Kazakhstan’s Catholic leaders, Kirill’s absence represents something of a lost opportunity.
“Personally I am pained,” said Bishop Adelio Dell’Oro of the Kazakh diocese of Karaganda. “I think a meeting between them on the sidelines of the congress would have been a notable contribution, notable in this process of peace to clarify what religions can contribute to human coexistence in the world. So I am disappointed, but you have to accept it.”
The interfaith congress is an important triennial event for Kazakhstan, a country that borders Russia to the north, China to the east and is home to some 130 ethnic groups: It’s a showpiece of its foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.
“We can say that Kazakhstan is really a place where dialogue is not some formal slogan, but this is a Kazakh brand," said Monsignor Piotr Pytlowany, spokesman for the Kazakh bishops conference. "Kazakhstan wants to share dialogue not only during this congress but also after it, offering the dialogue as one of the possible ways to resolve the various difficulties that the world now faces.”
When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s diversity while recalling its dark past under Stalinist repression: Entire villages of ethnic Poles were deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan beginning in 1936, and the Soviet government deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, Chechens and other accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan during World War II. Many of the deportees’ descendants remained and some of them make up the country’s Catholic community, which only numbers about 125,000 in a country of nearly 19 million.
Kazakh bishops had asked Francis to visit a former Soviet detention camp during his three-day visit, but the 85-year-old pope declined due to his strained knee ligaments, which have forced him to use a wheelchair and cane to get around.
His program has time for private meetings with religious leaders attending the congress. While the Vatican hasn’t released a list, expected participants include Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning in Cairo.
One visitor not currently on his agenda: Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is expected in Kazakhstan on his first foreign trip since the coronavirus pandemic. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said there were no current plans for any meeting and noted that Xi isn’t attending the religious conference. China and the Holy See haven’t had diplomatic relations for over a half-century.
Francis has repeatedly denounced Russia’s war in Ukraine as an unjust “violent aggression,” expressed solidarity with the “martyred” Ukrainian people and sent personal envoys to Ukraine to provide humanitarian and spiritual aid. At the same time, he has refrained from calling out Russia or President Vladimir Putin by name, trying to maintain a path of dialogue with Moscow in keeping with the Vatican’s diplomatic tradition of not taking sides in a conflict.
Kirill has justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on spiritual and ideological grounds, calling it a “metaphysical” battle with the West. He has blessed Russian soldiers going into battle and invoked the idea that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
The Kazakh congress would have provided a neutral location and coincidental excuse for their second-ever meeting, and both Kirill and Francis had originally confirmed their presence. But Kirill pulled out last month. A former Vatican ambassador to Moscow has suggested that grumblings within the Russian Orthodox hierarchy might have factored into Kirill’s decision.
Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall. Just last week, the general assembly of the World Council of Churches, a fellowship of more than 350 churches representing more than a half-billion Christians worldwide, denounced what it called an “illegal and unjustifiable” invasion and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which is a member of the WCC, refused to vote for the “politicized” declaration and complained about what it called “unprecedented pressure” on members to condemn Moscow and the Russian church.
Kazakhstan, for its part, has had to walk a thin line with the war. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions against Russia while trying to maintain close ties with Moscow, an important economic partner and ally. At the same time Tokayev refused to recognize the Russia-backed separatist “people’s republics” in Ukraine, which Moscow recognized days before invading Ukraine.
While Kazakhstan could have emerged as the mediator if Francis and Kirill had met, “maybe it’s even better that this is not happening because Kazakhstan would have looked like as a country that is getting involved in the Ukraine crisis, and this is the last thing that Kazakhstan wants to do right now,” said Temur Umarov, a Central Asia expert and fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
___
Manenkov reported from Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Russia's pro-war patriarch conspicuously absent in pope's Kazakh trip
Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill stand together
Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill stand together
after a 2016 meeting in Havana
Mon, September 12, 2022
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis leaves on Tuesday for a peace meeting of world religious leaders in Kazakhstan marked by the conspicuous absence of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war in Ukraine.
Kirill had been expected to attend the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, and Francis had several times said he was willing to talk to him.
Their meeting in Cuba in 2016 was the first between a pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch since the Great Schism of 1054 divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches.
But the Russian Church abruptly announced last month that Kirill would skip the meeting in the Kazak capital, Nur-Sultan. It gave no reason.
Some top Vatican officials were relieved that the encounter would not take place because of the bad optics of the pope meeting with a key backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior Vatican source.
Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, Andreii Kurash, also told the Vatican that his government would not look positively on a pope-patriarch meeting, preferring that the pope first visit Kyiv, according to the source.
Kirill has given enthusiastic backing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the patriarch views as a bulwark against a West he calls decadent.
His stance has caused a rift with the Vatican and unleashed an internal rebellion that has led to the severing of ties by some local Orthodox Churches with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Vatican has been trying to mend strained relations with Ukraine after the pope upset Kyiv last month by referring to Russian ultra-nationalist Darya Dugina, who was killed by a car bomb near Moscow, as an innocent victim of war.
Still, the war in Ukraine is likely to cast a long shadow on the meeting, which is due to be attended by more than 100 delegations from about 50 countries.
Speaking at his Sunday address, Francis called his Kazakhstan trip "a pilgrimage of dialogue and peace" and in the very next line asked for prayers for the Ukrainian people, who he often has said were being "martyred".
The logo of the trip is a dove carrying an olive branch.
There are only about 125,000 Catholics among the 19 million population of the vast Central Asian country, which is a former Soviet Republic. About 70% of the Kazakhs are Muslim and about 26% Orthodox Christians.
Francis, who uses a cane and a wheelchair because of a knee ailment, will say a Mass for the tiny Catholic community.
The religious leaders are due to hold a silent prayer at the start of the meeting on Wednesday and issue a joint statement at the end.
Francis is scheduled to hold private meetings with several religious leaders but the Vatican has not yet announced who they are.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Mon, September 12, 2022
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis leaves on Tuesday for a peace meeting of world religious leaders in Kazakhstan marked by the conspicuous absence of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war in Ukraine.
Kirill had been expected to attend the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, and Francis had several times said he was willing to talk to him.
Their meeting in Cuba in 2016 was the first between a pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch since the Great Schism of 1054 divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches.
But the Russian Church abruptly announced last month that Kirill would skip the meeting in the Kazak capital, Nur-Sultan. It gave no reason.
Some top Vatican officials were relieved that the encounter would not take place because of the bad optics of the pope meeting with a key backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior Vatican source.
Ukraine's ambassador to the Vatican, Andreii Kurash, also told the Vatican that his government would not look positively on a pope-patriarch meeting, preferring that the pope first visit Kyiv, according to the source.
Kirill has given enthusiastic backing to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the patriarch views as a bulwark against a West he calls decadent.
His stance has caused a rift with the Vatican and unleashed an internal rebellion that has led to the severing of ties by some local Orthodox Churches with the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Vatican has been trying to mend strained relations with Ukraine after the pope upset Kyiv last month by referring to Russian ultra-nationalist Darya Dugina, who was killed by a car bomb near Moscow, as an innocent victim of war.
Still, the war in Ukraine is likely to cast a long shadow on the meeting, which is due to be attended by more than 100 delegations from about 50 countries.
Speaking at his Sunday address, Francis called his Kazakhstan trip "a pilgrimage of dialogue and peace" and in the very next line asked for prayers for the Ukrainian people, who he often has said were being "martyred".
The logo of the trip is a dove carrying an olive branch.
There are only about 125,000 Catholics among the 19 million population of the vast Central Asian country, which is a former Soviet Republic. About 70% of the Kazakhs are Muslim and about 26% Orthodox Christians.
Francis, who uses a cane and a wheelchair because of a knee ailment, will say a Mass for the tiny Catholic community.
The religious leaders are due to hold a silent prayer at the start of the meeting on Wednesday and issue a joint statement at the end.
Francis is scheduled to hold private meetings with several religious leaders but the Vatican has not yet announced who they are.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Pope, opening Kazakh visit, blasts 'senseless' Ukraine war
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Pope Francis, left, meets the Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he arrives at Our-Sultan's International airport in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Pope Francis begins a 3-days visit to the majority-Muslim former Soviet republic to minister to its tiny Catholic community and participate in a Kazakh-sponsored conference of world religious leaders.
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Pope Francis, left, meets the Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he arrives at Our-Sultan's International airport in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. Pope Francis begins a 3-days visit to the majority-Muslim former Soviet republic to minister to its tiny Catholic community and participate in a Kazakh-sponsored conference of world religious leaders.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
NICOLE WINFIELD and KOSTYA MANENKOV
Mon, September 12, 2022
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis begged for an end to Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine as he arrived Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to join faith leaders from around the world in praying for peace.
Francis flew to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for an official state visit portion of his three-day trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, he participates in a government-sponsored triennial interfaith meeting, which is gathering more than 100 delegations of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto and other faith groups from 50 countries.
The 85-year-old Francis made the trip despite what appeared to be an aggravation of the strained knee ligaments that have greatly reduced his mobility all year. Francis struggled to walk through the aisle of the aircraft during the 6.5-hour flight from Rome, and he appeared tired and in pain as he limped heavily with his cane, ceding to a wheelchair for most events once in town. Doctors have told him that for the time being, any further travel — to Kyiv, for example — is out of the question.
Speaking upon his arrival to government authorities and diplomats gathered at the Qazaq concert hall, Francis praised Kazakhstan’s commitment to diversity and dialogue and its progress from decades of Stalinist repression, when Kazakhstan was the destination of hundreds of thousands of Soviet deportees.
Francis said the country, which borders Russia to the north and China to the east and is home to some 150 ethnic groups and 80 languages, now has a “fundamental role to play” in helping ease conflicts elsewhere.
Recalling that St. John Paul II visited Kazakhstan just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., Francis said he was visiting “in the course of the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine.”
“I have come to echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace, which is the essential path to development for our globalized world,” he said.
Directing himself at global superpowers, he said expanding efforts at diplomacy and dialogue were ever more important. “And those who hold greater power in the world have greater responsibility with regard to others, especially those countries most prone to unrest and conflict.”
“Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs,” he said.
Tokayev didn’t mention Ukraine specifically in his prepared remarks to Francis. But speaking in English, he referred in general terms about humanity being on an “edge of an abyss as geopolitical tensions escalate, global economy suffers, and mushrooming religious and ethnic intolerance becomes the ‘new normal.’”
Kazakhstan has had to walk a thin line with the war. Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions against Russia while trying to maintain close ties with Moscow, an important economic partner and ally. At the same time, Tokayev refused to recognize the Russia-backed separatist “people’s republics” in Ukraine which Moscow recognized days before invading Ukraine.
The most noteworthy aspects of Francis’ visit to Kazakhstan might boil down to the missed opportunities with both Russia and China: Francis was supposed to have met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church on the sidelines of the conference. But Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the war in Ukraine, canceled his trip last month.
Francis is also going to be in the Kazakh capital at the same time as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is making his first foreign trip since early in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican and China haven’t had diplomatic relations for a half century and the timing is somewhat tense, with the two sides finalizing the renewal of a controversial deal over the nominations of Catholic bishops in China.
The Vatican has said there were no current plans for any meeting between Xi and Francis while they were both in Kazakhstan and the Kazakh deputy foreign minister, Roman Vassilenko said he didn’t believe there was time in Xi’s schedule to meet with Francis.
Asked about the possibility en route to Nur-Sultan, Francis said: “I don’t have any news about this. But I am always ready to go to China.”
The interfaith congress, now in its seventh iteration, is a showpiece of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.
When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s diversity while recalling its dark past under Stalinist repression: Entire villages of ethnic Poles were deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan beginning in 1936, and the Soviet government deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, Chechens and other accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan during World War II. Many of the deportees’ descendants remained and some of them make up the country’s Catholic community, which only numbers about 125,000 in a country of nearly 19 million.
Sophia Gatovskaya, a parishioner at Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Cathedral in the capital, said she attended that first papal visit and that it has borne fruits to this day.
“It was actually amazing. And after this visit, we have peace and tolerance in our republic. We have a lot of nationalities in Kazakhstan, and we all live together. And we expect the same from this visit (of Pope Francis) that we will have peace in our republic. And we very much expect that the war in Ukraine will end.”
NICOLE WINFIELD and KOSTYA MANENKOV
Mon, September 12, 2022
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis begged for an end to Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine as he arrived Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to join faith leaders from around the world in praying for peace.
Francis flew to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for an official state visit portion of his three-day trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, he participates in a government-sponsored triennial interfaith meeting, which is gathering more than 100 delegations of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto and other faith groups from 50 countries.
The 85-year-old Francis made the trip despite what appeared to be an aggravation of the strained knee ligaments that have greatly reduced his mobility all year. Francis struggled to walk through the aisle of the aircraft during the 6.5-hour flight from Rome, and he appeared tired and in pain as he limped heavily with his cane, ceding to a wheelchair for most events once in town. Doctors have told him that for the time being, any further travel — to Kyiv, for example — is out of the question.
Speaking upon his arrival to government authorities and diplomats gathered at the Qazaq concert hall, Francis praised Kazakhstan’s commitment to diversity and dialogue and its progress from decades of Stalinist repression, when Kazakhstan was the destination of hundreds of thousands of Soviet deportees.
Francis said the country, which borders Russia to the north and China to the east and is home to some 150 ethnic groups and 80 languages, now has a “fundamental role to play” in helping ease conflicts elsewhere.
Recalling that St. John Paul II visited Kazakhstan just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., Francis said he was visiting “in the course of the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine.”
“I have come to echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace, which is the essential path to development for our globalized world,” he said.
Directing himself at global superpowers, he said expanding efforts at diplomacy and dialogue were ever more important. “And those who hold greater power in the world have greater responsibility with regard to others, especially those countries most prone to unrest and conflict.”
“Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs,” he said.
Tokayev didn’t mention Ukraine specifically in his prepared remarks to Francis. But speaking in English, he referred in general terms about humanity being on an “edge of an abyss as geopolitical tensions escalate, global economy suffers, and mushrooming religious and ethnic intolerance becomes the ‘new normal.’”
Kazakhstan has had to walk a thin line with the war. Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions against Russia while trying to maintain close ties with Moscow, an important economic partner and ally. At the same time, Tokayev refused to recognize the Russia-backed separatist “people’s republics” in Ukraine which Moscow recognized days before invading Ukraine.
The most noteworthy aspects of Francis’ visit to Kazakhstan might boil down to the missed opportunities with both Russia and China: Francis was supposed to have met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church on the sidelines of the conference. But Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the war in Ukraine, canceled his trip last month.
Francis is also going to be in the Kazakh capital at the same time as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is making his first foreign trip since early in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican and China haven’t had diplomatic relations for a half century and the timing is somewhat tense, with the two sides finalizing the renewal of a controversial deal over the nominations of Catholic bishops in China.
The Vatican has said there were no current plans for any meeting between Xi and Francis while they were both in Kazakhstan and the Kazakh deputy foreign minister, Roman Vassilenko said he didn’t believe there was time in Xi’s schedule to meet with Francis.
Asked about the possibility en route to Nur-Sultan, Francis said: “I don’t have any news about this. But I am always ready to go to China.”
The interfaith congress, now in its seventh iteration, is a showpiece of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.
When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s diversity while recalling its dark past under Stalinist repression: Entire villages of ethnic Poles were deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan beginning in 1936, and the Soviet government deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, Chechens and other accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan during World War II. Many of the deportees’ descendants remained and some of them make up the country’s Catholic community, which only numbers about 125,000 in a country of nearly 19 million.
Sophia Gatovskaya, a parishioner at Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Cathedral in the capital, said she attended that first papal visit and that it has borne fruits to this day.
“It was actually amazing. And after this visit, we have peace and tolerance in our republic. We have a lot of nationalities in Kazakhstan, and we all live together. And we expect the same from this visit (of Pope Francis) that we will have peace in our republic. And we very much expect that the war in Ukraine will end.”
Pope arrives in Kazakhstan, says 'always ready' for China visit
1 / 10
Philip Pullella
Tue, September 13, 2022
By Philip Pullella
NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Tuesday he was willing to go to China at any time but had "no news" to offer over speculation he might meet Chinese President Xi Jinping while both are in Kazakhstan.
Francis arrived in Kazakhstan after a six-hour flight from Rome at the start of a three-day trip to attend a peace meeting of world religious leaders.
Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment, for the first time on his trips used a finger ramp to exit the plane and enter the terminal on a wheelchair.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev greeted the pope briefly at the airport before the pope travelled in a small white car to the gleaming marble presidential palace for a private meeting with the head of state.
Speaking to reporters accompanying him on his flight to the central Asian republic, Francis was asked whether he might meet Xi in its capital Nur-Sultan, where both men will be on Wednesday.
"I don't have any news about that," the pope replied, without elaborating.
Asked if he was ready to go to China, Francis responded: "I am always ready to go to China".
Francis used a cane to walk around the plane greeting reporters as he usually does on such trips. He appeared in pain by the time he returned to his own seat in the front section of the aircraft.
The pope has tried to ease the historically poor relations between the Holy See and China, and told Reuters in an interview in July that he hoped to renew a secret and contested agreement on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in China.
Xi is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from Sept. 14-16 in his first official trip to a foreign nation since China all but shut its borders due to COVID-19. He is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan.
The war in Ukraine is casting a long shadow on the pope's visit to Kazakhstan and the international religious meeting, which is due to be attended by more than 100 delegations from about 50 countries.
In an address to the Kazakh government and the diplomatic corps on Tuesday night, Francis spoke of "the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine".
He also spoke of the need to ease Cold War-style confrontations and rhetoric, saying "Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs."
Francis will be in Kazakhstan until Thursday for the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, a gathering marked by the conspicuous absence of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war in Ukraine.
Kirill had been expected to attend the congress, and Francis had several times said he was willing to talk to him.
There are only about 125,000 Catholics among the 19 million population of the vast Central Asian country, which is a former Soviet Republic. About 70% of the Kazakhs are Muslim and about 26% Orthodox Christians.
Francis will say a Mass for the tiny Catholic community on Wednesday afternoon.
(Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in AlmatyEditing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
1 / 10
Philip Pullella
Tue, September 13, 2022
By Philip Pullella
NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) -Pope Francis said on Tuesday he was willing to go to China at any time but had "no news" to offer over speculation he might meet Chinese President Xi Jinping while both are in Kazakhstan.
Francis arrived in Kazakhstan after a six-hour flight from Rome at the start of a three-day trip to attend a peace meeting of world religious leaders.
Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment, for the first time on his trips used a finger ramp to exit the plane and enter the terminal on a wheelchair.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev greeted the pope briefly at the airport before the pope travelled in a small white car to the gleaming marble presidential palace for a private meeting with the head of state.
Speaking to reporters accompanying him on his flight to the central Asian republic, Francis was asked whether he might meet Xi in its capital Nur-Sultan, where both men will be on Wednesday.
"I don't have any news about that," the pope replied, without elaborating.
Asked if he was ready to go to China, Francis responded: "I am always ready to go to China".
Francis used a cane to walk around the plane greeting reporters as he usually does on such trips. He appeared in pain by the time he returned to his own seat in the front section of the aircraft.
The pope has tried to ease the historically poor relations between the Holy See and China, and told Reuters in an interview in July that he hoped to renew a secret and contested agreement on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in China.
Xi is visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan from Sept. 14-16 in his first official trip to a foreign nation since China all but shut its borders due to COVID-19. He is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan.
The war in Ukraine is casting a long shadow on the pope's visit to Kazakhstan and the international religious meeting, which is due to be attended by more than 100 delegations from about 50 countries.
In an address to the Kazakh government and the diplomatic corps on Tuesday night, Francis spoke of "the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine".
He also spoke of the need to ease Cold War-style confrontations and rhetoric, saying "Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs."
Francis will be in Kazakhstan until Thursday for the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, a gathering marked by the conspicuous absence of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who supports the war in Ukraine.
Kirill had been expected to attend the congress, and Francis had several times said he was willing to talk to him.
There are only about 125,000 Catholics among the 19 million population of the vast Central Asian country, which is a former Soviet Republic. About 70% of the Kazakhs are Muslim and about 26% Orthodox Christians.
Francis will say a Mass for the tiny Catholic community on Wednesday afternoon.
(Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov in AlmatyEditing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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