Pope Francis and his complicated legacy in Ukraine

A portrait of late Pope Francis displayed during a memorial mass at the Duomo Cathedral in Milan. Photo: Piero Cruciatti / Shutterstock

On April 26th, hundreds of thousands of Catholics gathered in Rome to pay their respects to Pope Francis. He was the head of the Catholic Church from March 2013 to April 2025.

During his tenure, Pope Francis advocated for social justice, climate change and the rights of marginalized groups. He was a progressive in the Catholic Church, where he looked to be more inclusive of various communities around the world. The former pope worked hard to strengthen relationships with multiple countries, and he was generally seen as a reformer in the Catholic Church. Given his humble attitude and progressive stance on various issues, Pope Francis and his policies were usually viewed favourably by the wider Catholic community. In short, he worked to reform the Catholic Church to be more accepting and open to all.

For the Ukrainian community, however, Pope Francis left a more complicated legacy. Elected in March 2013, he was seen in Ukraine as someone who could potentially bring about genuine change, as Eastern Catholics looked to form stronger connections with the Vatican. There are nearly five million Catholics in Ukraine, and for several years, they had felt forgotten. But throughout the tenure of Pope Francis, the Ukrainians were still left disappointed.

What happened? Before the election of Pope Francis, his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI was the head of the Church. During his tenure, a significant event occurred in the occurred in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In February 2011, Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar announced that he would resign from his post due to health reasons. The announcement presented Pope Benedict XVI with an opportunity to appoint a new cardinal of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. While the pope confirmed Auxiliary Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk to be the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, he was not named a cardinal.

Pope Francis also upheld this decision. In fact, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church would not have a new cardinal until autumn 2024. In other words, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church needed to wait for 13 years before a successor was appointed, which was viewed poorly by the community.

But the controversy surrounding Pope Francis and his relationship with Ukraine did not end there. During his tenure, the former pope witnessed the illegal annexation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of Donbas in 2014. This provided him and the Vatican with an opportunity to take a stance on these events. Instead, the Ukrainian community was left with further disappointment. During Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, Pope Francis failed to condemn Moscow’s aggressive actions. Instead, he called for “dialogue and harmony” between Russia and Ukraine, hoping they would reach a peaceful solution.

Following these events, Pope Francis continued to make blanket statements about Moscow and Kyiv, calling for peace between the two countries during the first Russian invasion. The former pope failed to acknowledge that the war was caused by the Russian Federation, and at one point, he even opted to meet with Russian Patriarch Kirill, the head of the country’s Orthodox Church. During their exchange in Cuba in February 2016, the two religious leaders issued a joint statement. The document read that both parties discussed “the mutual relations between the Churches”, and that they would seek to build on this meeting and the relationship between their organizations.

The meeting was of great significance for the Ukrainian community. At the time, Russia had launched its first invasion of Donbas in spring 2014. Thousands of Ukrainian citizens in eastern Ukraine had been killed due to Russian aggression, and according to international experts, winter 2016 was a particularly violent period during the war. While Pope Francis had an opportunity to speak with Patriarch Kirill to call for an end to the Donbas invasion, he said nothing. In addition, Pope Francis would not visit Ukraine during his tenure as the head of the Catholic Church from March 2013 to April 2025. This led to greater confusion in the Ukrainian Catholic community, as members could not comprehend why Pope Francis would have prioritized a meeting with Patriarch Kirill, a known friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and someone who had supported Russia’s incursion into Ukraine.

Things then seemed to turn in 2018, when news broke that the Orthodox community in Ukraine would seek “autocephaly”. For generations, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was a sect that was a part of the wider Orthodox Church of Russia. Numerous religious sites, churches and community centres throughout Ukraine belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church. However, as the Russian invasion of Donbas became even more deadly, the Ukrainians sought to establish greater independence and break away from Russia’s religious realm.

Ukraine’s push for autocephaly was supported by Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Then, after consulting with other Orthodox communities, the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that it would grant this new status to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, much to the dismay of its Russian counterpart. While the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church are separate entities within Christianity, and although the Catholic Church had no say in the matter of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, the Vatican supported Ukrainian efforts. In a statement issued by the Holy See, the Vatican announced that it would recognize the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. This was welcomed by the Ukrainian community.

Outside of this event, Pope Francis, in his later years, worked to strengthen relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by appointing a new cardinal, and Ukraine’s first, since 2011. Consistent in his messaging of amplifying voices and communities around the world, the former pope would name Bishop Mykola Bychok as the next cardinal in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Prior to Bychok, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had only had five previous cardinals, meaning that the decision made by Pope Francis was historic and significant. It suggested that the Vatican had not forgotten about the Ukrainian Catholic community, and that the Holy See was serious about strengthening relations with lesser-represented communities within the Catholic Church.

Aside from Pope Francis’s support for an autocephalous Orthodox Church in Ukraine and the appointment of the first Ukrainian Catholic cardinal since 2011, the relationship between the Holy See and Ukraine waned during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When the war began in February 2022, Pope Francis called for peace and dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. This is similar to what he had done during the annexation of Crimea and the Russian invasion of Donbas. As the war progressed, the pope failed to condemn Russia’s actions. Instead, he was guilty of repeating Russian talking points about the war.

For example, during the early stages of the war, Pope Francis suggested that there may have been some sort of provocation that forced Russia to launch its invasion. The pope also indicated that he believed that Ukraine was being used as a pawn between NATO and Russia. Both of these statements are false, however, as the international community generally agrees that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an unprovoked, unnecessary and illegal war started by Russia.

There were further blunders. During the war, Pope Francis held a video conference with young Russian Christians. While on the call, the pope reminded those present about Russian history. “Never forget your heritage,” Pope Francis said. He would continue by stating that “You are heirs to great Russia: the Russia of saints, rulers, the vast Russia of Peter I, Catherine II – an empire that was great.” The comments upset millions of Ukrainians, as the Russian Empire also sought to eliminate the Ukrainian language. Thousands of ethnic Ukrainians were also imprisoned and enslaved during this period.

Finally, there was the infamous incident in 2024, when Pope Francis called on the Ukrainians to submit to the Russian invasion. In his statement, the pope said that the Ukrainians should have “the courage of the white flag”, believing that the Ukrainians should be forced into negotiations with the Russians. While it is understandable why the pope would have called for peace, as Russia’s war has brought death and destruction to Ukraine, capitulating to those responsible for the war is not the appropriate solution.

These statements by Pope Francis were viewed as harmful by members of the Ukrainian Catholic community (and Ukrainians more broadly). To these Christians, it felt as if the pope should have taken a more rigid stance on Russia, condemning Moscow for the war. They were left puzzled by the pope’s repeated Russian narratives on the conflict, and they did not understand why he continued to speak with the Russian Patriarch Kirill.

It is important to note that the Vatican has provided thousands of euros in humanitarian and medical aid to Ukraine throughout the invasion. While this assistance has been welcomed, it did not make up for the pope’s comments on the war. Instead, many Ukrainian Catholics were left disappointed by Pope Francis, hoping that something different would come.

Overall, Pope Francis has left a mixed legacy with Ukrainians. He supported the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, appointed a new cardinal in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church after a 13-year absence, and approved humanitarian and medical assistance from the Holy See to Ukraine during Russia’s full-scale invasion. He helped Russia and Ukraine with prisoner exchanges, and he even secretly donated funds to purchase drones for the Ukrainian army.

But for many Ukrainians, these actions were not enough. The pope’s failure to take a harder stance on Russia, his decision to repeat the Russian narrative on the war, and his meetings with Patriarch Kirill, a known supporter of the Russian invasion, were unacceptable. Now, as a new pope has been elected in the Vatican, many Ukrainians are hopeful that something will change.

Mark Temnycky is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and an accredited freelance journalist covering Eurasian affairs.

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Catholic Church, Orthodox Christianity, patri, Pope Francis, Russia-Ukraine war, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vatican