With Russia’s war on Ukraine showing no signs of abating, Pope Francis has been left with increasingly limited options for his peace efforts. A planned meeting with the Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill has now been cancelled, and the possibility of a papal visit to Kyiv is looking increasingly remote. Some argue that trying to influence Kirill to withdraw his support for President Vladimir Putin’s invasion is a lost cause; even if a visit to Ukraine could mean the end of Francis’ hopes to be a peace broker, he should “just go”.

To understand Francis’ approach, it is vital to see the political, diplomatic and theological elements that he and Holy See diplomats are trying to stitch together. At the political level, the Pope seeks to avoid being caught up in what he calls “the old logic of power that still dominates so-called ‘geopolitics’”.