Those, who are surprised to see @pontifex siding with Putin remember that this is not a new thing.
It's a little remembered fact but on 1st of September 1939 Poland was invaded not only by Nazi Germany but also by Slovakia. Slovakia occupied small parts of Spisz and Orawa 1/x
- respectably East and West of Nowy Targ.
While this was not really a significant historical event, it was part of the activities of the First Slovak Republic, a puppet Nazi state. Why I am writing about it in the Pope's context you might ask? 2/x
Because it's leader - first a prime minister and then its president was one Jozef Tiso - a Catholic priest (pictured on the right).
He was a total Nazi who persecuted Jews, sabotaged anti-Nazi resistance, submitted his country to Hitler and so on. Terrible guy. 3/x
He was captured after the war and hung for his crimes.
So what was the Vatican doing about it? Have they stripped him of his priestship? Excommunicated him?
No. They were just asking him nicely to perhaps not do that Holocaust thing so eagerly. 4/x
They never really condemned Tiso to this day. Even when pope Francis was in Slovakia a couple of years back, he spoke something about it being a "place [where] the name of God was dishonored". He didn't bothered to mention his fellow member of the clergy 5/x
And this is just one example. Poles can talk about much more:
- Bishops were actively supporting Targowica Confederation, a Russian-inspired conspiracy that opposed democratic reforms in Poland (3rd May Constitution) and 6/x
...called for division of Poland into smaller states instead (so they could be controlled by Russia easily - what else is new?)
- the Pope condemned Polish uprisings against occupation forces and instructed the clergy to tell people to submit to legitimate government (by... 7/x
...legitimate they, of course, considered the governments of Prussia, Russia and Austro-Hungary that occupied Poland).
- there are many more examples, like when Poland was being invaded, Vatican was usually very quick to, for example, adjust the diocese borders to match the 8/x
borders of the occupying states, but when Poland was regaining its independence, Vatican was one of the last to recognize the newly independent Polish state and adjust their own structure accordingly (Gorzów Wielkopolski was part of Berlin Diocezy until 1972!)! And so on.... 9/x
To sum it up, I am not holding my breath for Vatican to stand with Ukraine any time soon. They were always supporting the empires because they themselves are a kind of one. 10/10
(pic: @Pawelkuczynski1 )
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