“Central Europeans—people from Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic—we are shocked,” said Michal Klosowski, a Catholic journalist in Warsaw and the author of a recent book about Francis, referring to the pope’s recent comments. “The pope has no idea about the history of Central Europe and about the history of the Russian Empire. The nations of Central Europe were enslaved by the Russians for many centuries.” …

Francis’ remarks about NATO enlargement have struck a nerve in Lithuania, which was under Soviet rule until 1991 and joined the U.S.-led alliance in 2004, said Irena Vaisvilaite, a former Lithuanian ambassador to the Holy See.

“It was definitely thought that the pope was repeating Russian propaganda,” Vaisvilaite said, adding that, after last year’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the common feeling in Lithuania was “if not for NATO, it would be us.”

[Unfortunately, Pope Francis is proving himself to be a lightweight, especially in politics. Also, if you’re not following Frank Rocca on Twitter, this is a good time to start. I’ll try to get him on a podcast soon to discuss this further. — Ed]