Pope Francis Makes Rare Visit to Russian Embassy to Express Concern About War

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Breaking protocol, Pope Francis on Saturday, 26 February visited the Russian Embassy to “express his concerns about the war”, reported Associated Press.

In a post from his official Twitter account, Pope Francis denounced the ills of conflict of the Russia invasion of Ukraine.

“Every war leaves our world worse than it was before. War is a failure of politics and of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil,” read the post. The same message was also tweeted in Russian with the hashtag #PrayTogether #Ukraine.

Usually, popes receive ambassadors and heads of state in the Vatican, and protocol would have called for the Vatican foreign minister to summon the Russian ambassador. For the pope to leave the walled city and travel to the Russian embassy signs his anger at Moscow for the invasion.

“The Holy See press office confirms that the pope went to the Russian Embassy to the Holy See on Via della Conciliazione, clearly to express his concern about the war. He was there for just over a half-hour,” reported AP, quoting Matteo Bruni, Vatican spokesman.