Pope Francis has failed to be a spiritual mediator in Ukraine

Whenever pope Francis looks up from his writing, he is reminded of Ukraine. On his desk sits an icon he acquired while archbishop of Buenos Aires as a parting gift from one of his bishops, Svyatoslav Shevchuk, who in 2011 returned to Kyiv to lead the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic church. It was among the few possessions Francis brought to Rome. The depth of his concern for Ukraine became obvious on December 8th when he was moved to tears as he mentioned its suffering at a ceremony in Rome.Yet as Christmas nears, it is clear that Francis’s efforts to position himself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine have failed. The pope is an outsider in a clash between two mostly Orthodox countries. He has also repeatedly antagonised both Ukrainians and Russians with his statements and omissions.