• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pope Francis holds a Ukrainian flag as he greets the crowd before Mass in St. Peter's Square during the World Meeting of Families at the Vatican in this June 25, 2022, file photo. Meeting Jesuits in Kazakhstan in early September, the pope said too many people have taken a simplistic view of Russia's war on Ukraine. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Invasion of Ukraine was barbaric, but war is complicated, pope tells Jesuits

September 29, 2022
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Vatican, War in Ukraine, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

ROME (CNS) — Pope Francis said that while he has defined Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “unacceptable, repugnant, senseless aggression, barbaric (and) sacrilegious,” he also said that too many people have taken a simplistic view of the war.

“There is a war underway, and I think it’s wrong to think of it like a cowboy movie where there are good guys and bad guys. And it’s wrong to think that this is a war between Russia and Ukraine and that’s it. No. This is a world war,” Pope Francis told a group of Jesuits, according to an Italian transcript of the conversation released Sept. 28.

The pope met Sept. 15 with 19 Jesuits working in Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan — the Jesuits’ “Russian Region” — during his Sept. 13-15 trip to Kazakhstan. As has become the practice when the pope meets Jesuits during a foreign trip, a transcript of his remarks was released later by the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica.

Pope Francis told his Jesuit confreres that while it is clear “the victim of this conflict is Ukraine,” one must try to understand the factors that contributed to the war.

“War is like a marriage, in a sense,” the pope said. “To understand, you have to investigate the dynamics that developed the conflict.”

As he has said in the past — and has been criticized for saying — Pope Francis told the Jesuits that “there are international factors that helped provoke the war,” repeating that an unnamed head of state had told him in December that he was worried because “NATO had gone barking at the doors of Russia without understanding that the Russians are imperial and fear insecurity on their borders.”

“When they feel threatened and in decay, imperialists react by thinking that the solution is to wage a war to remake themselves — and also to sell and test weapons,” Pope Francis said, according to the transcript.

The pope outlined for the Jesuits the public prayers and statements he had made appealing for peace, condemning the invasion and praying for Ukraine, as well as his conversations with the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors to the Holy See and with Catholic and Orthodox prelates.

However, he added, “I am not interested in you defending the pope, but that the people feel caressed by you who are the brothers of the pope. The pope does not get angry if he is misunderstood, because I know well the suffering that is behind it.”

Read More Crisis in Ukraine

Pope to Ukrainian Greek Catholics: ‘God will have the last word,’ ‘life will conquer death’

Pope Leo XIV’s diplomatic efforts may impact U.S. foreign policy, analyst says

Vatican can take 3 key steps to bring Ukrainian kids back from Russia, says child advocate

Kyiv’s historic cathedral damaged in Russian air strikes

Yes, it’s our war, too

Pope speaks by phone with Russian leader Putin

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Cindy Wooden

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

  • Castel Gandolfo After 12 years, locals welcome pope back to his summer home

| Latest Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Latest World News |

80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons

Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Remember common decency in immigration enforcement
  • Sponsors – for life
  • With you
  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal
  • The virtue of patriotism
  • Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says
  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en