By Francis X. Rocca, Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2023ROME—Pope Francis praised 18th-century Russian emperors whom President Vladimir Putin has invoked as models for his territorial annexations in Ukraine, in the pontiff’s latest controversial statement relevant to the war. Putin has cited Peter, who expanded Russian territory and curtailed Ukrainian autonomy, to justify the current invasion. Catherine also harbored the Jesuit order, of which Pope Francis is a member, during the order’s suppression by Rome in the late 18th and early 19th century. The pope has repeatedly cast the war in Ukraine as a struggle between the Russian and U.S. superpowers, with Ukraine as a victim caught in the middle. And empires put nations in second place,” the pope said in a March interview with Swiss public television.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 28, 2023 23:18 UTC