The Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow

Pope Francis is undoubtedly grieved by the carnage in Ukraine. And when the Catholic Church's chief ecumenical officer, Cardinal Kurt Koch, tells journalists he shares the papal conviction that religious justifications of aggression are "blasphemy" -- a wicked use of the things of God -- we may be sure that this, too, is Francis's view of things. Why, then, should Pope Francis meet with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', as some personalities and movements in the Church were once urging? Since the invasion of February 24, Kirill has repeatedly deployed religious justifications for Russia's barbaric assault on Ukraine. Is Kirill not, then, a blasphemer?