"Schneider's glasses"

Wise men

Pope Francis: His statements on the war in Ukraine sometimes left people shaking their heads.(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

In his column, author Robert Schneider wonders whether the uproar surrounding Pope Francis' statements on the war in Ukraine was justified or not. 

It takes nerves of steel: the little one is beaten up by the big one in the school playground, the others stand by and do nothing. Then the teacher comes and says to the little one: "That's enough! Give the big boy your hand!"

This is exactly how Pope Francis' comments were received when he recently called on Ukraine to negotiate peace with Russia in an interview for Swiss television. "The stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage to raise the white flag, to negotiate," he said verbatim.

The horror and outrage in the western schoolyard was immense. "The big one started the quarrel, not the little one! Now the little one should ask for peace?" These were the words of his classmates, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Annalena Baerbock and FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. A Vatican spokesperson with shaky legs then tried to limit the damage and fiddled around to classify the Pope's embarrassing statements.

Francis is not embarrassed at all. He stands by it. The century-old Henry Kissinger, who died last year, also argued like him. Also to the horror of those around him. Have these old men gone completely senile?

I have a sneaking suspicion. These men will go down in the history books because they predicted exactly what has long been apparent anyway. I'll use the image of the school playground again: everyone stands around and is horrified by so much injustice on the part of the big man. How mean, how awful! But then the break bell rings and lessons continue. That's exactly what will happen.