Pope Francis recently condemned Chechen mercenaries for being the most aggressive of ‘Russian’ troops in Ukraine.
His comments inspired accusations of racism from woke Russians, who believed that the Pope’s comments should be deemed offensive.
Coincidentally, the Vatican website was hacked and went down for a few days almost immediately afterwards.
The website was reinstated without explanation over what was clearly a very serious breach.
Now, Russia has said that they have received an apology from the Vatican.
Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, has said that
‘‘We received a letter through diplomatic channels from the Vatican, which contains an official statement on behalf of Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin in connection with the pontiff's aforementioned statement.
‘‘In particular, the following: 'The Vatican Secretariat of State apologizes to the Russian side. The Holy See has the utmost respect for all peoples of Russia, their dignity, faith and culture, as well as for other countries and peoples of the world’’
When asked about the letter Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican Press Office, told reporters, "I can confirm there have been diplomatic contacts in that respect."
“The ability to admit one’s mistakes is becoming less and less common in modern international communication,” the Russians said and it “shows that behind the Vatican’s calls for dialogue is the ability to conduct this dialogue and listen to interlocutors.”
We are not going to accuse the Vatican of bowing to Russia after they hacked their website, but we will say that the last high profile hacking occurred in 2015 when the Pope recognised the Armenian Genocide.
