Ukraine has expressed its displeasure over the Vatican’s decision to make a Ukrainian woman walk alongside a Russian carrying the cross together during a Good Friday procession presided over by the pope.
Reverend Antonio Spadaro, a close aide of Pope Francis, has defended the decision, telling the Italian state broadcaster Rai that the pope is “a pastor, not a politician”.
He added that the image of the two women carrying the cross together during the procession was upsetting “because they represent something that can’t be obtained” in Ukraine right now — “peace”.
Earlier, Ukrainian leaders including the country’s ambassador to the Holy See and the archbishop of Kyiv had criticised the decision, demanding it be reconsidered amid Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine.
The annual “Way of the Cross” procession on Good Friday consists of the 14 stations of the cross, stages between the condemnation of Jesus to death and his burial.
The procession is customised so that those carrying the cross from one station to the other reflect world events. The women, both working together as nurses at a hospital in Rome, would be carrying the cross at the 13th station which commemorates Jesus being taken down from the cross after his death.
“I consider such an idea inopportune, ambiguous and such that it does not take into account the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of Ukraine’s Byzantine-rite Catholic Church.
The archbishop also decried the wording of a meditation which speaks of reconciliation and reconstruction after the bombings that will be read aloud as the two nurses clutch the cross.
"We want our life back as before. Why all of this? What wrong did we do? Why have you forsaken us? Why have you forsaken our peoples?" it reads.
Criticising the text as "incoherent and even offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages”, the archbishop asked the Vatican to review its decision.
He also received support of Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, who shared concerns about the procession plan, adding they were working with the Vatican on “trying to explain the difficulties of its realisation and possible consequences”.
On the other hand, when earlier interviewed on Italian state TV, the nurses involved in the procession expressed their satisfaction with their roles and emphasised their friendship.
The pope did not mention the controversy on Wednesday during his public address, as he denounced “the armed aggression of these days” as “an outrage against God”.
He also pressed for a ceasefire to be observed in Ukraine this Easter Sunday.
