Christian leaders have much explaining to do.

John

“Kirill, for his part, insisted that Francis and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who also spoke by video call with the patriarch this week, understood the Russian position and were “sympathetic” to it. He repeated that the goal of the Russian Orthodox Church “despite the very negative political context” was to preserve the “spiritual unity of our people – the Russian and Ukrainian peoples – as a single people who emerged from the Kiev Baptismal font.”

It came just days after Francis told the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, that the concept of a “just war” was obsolete since wars are never justifiable and that pastors must preach peace, not politics.

Those comments, during a video call Wednesday with Kirill, seemed to be an indirect jab at the patriarch’s apparent defense of the war. Kirill, who is close…