A quiet monastery in the western Ukrainian village of Hoshiv has transformed itself into a giant playground for a dozen children who’ve been displaced by the war with their families.
Ukraine
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis calls for an Easter truce in Ukraine, leading to ‘peace through a true negotiation’
On Palm Sunday, Pope Francis made an appeal to “lay down the arms in Ukraine” and asked, “What kind of a victory would it be to plant a flag on a heap of ruins?”
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Thomas Merton can still teach us a lot about nuclear war
Faced with anxieties we have not experienced since the Cold War, perhaps it is time to return to Thomas Merton’s writings on nuclear weapons and the Christian responsibility to advocate for peace in a nuclear age.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Pope Francis: The blood of innocent victims massacred in Bucha ‘cries out to heaven’
The world is witnessing “ever-more horrendous acts of cruelty done against civilians, unarmed women and children, whose innocent blood cries out to heaven and implores, ‘End this war.’”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Pope Francis is wise to not call out Putin directly. Here’s why.
By tempering his rhetoric on Ukraine, the pope is protecting his role as a peacemaker. He is also downplaying any conflict between Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis last spoke to Putin before New Year’s, is willing to visit Kyiv but that is ‘up in the air’
Answering a question from America’s Vatican correspondent, Pope Francis indicated he has not spoken directly to President Putin since the war started.
Posted inArts & Culture, Television
President Zelensky’s love of Ukraine is at the heart of ‘Servant of the People’
Watching “Servant of the People,” I find myself called to gratitude, hope and mourning.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Former Jesuit superior of Ukraine: ‘Putin is destroying the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.’
“If Putin says something on Tuesday, the Russian Patriarch has to say the same thing on Wednesday but just putting the word ‘God’ into the sentence,” David Nazar, S.J., said in an exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Explainer: Understanding Orthodoxy, the shared religion of Ukraine and Russia
Why one Orthodox patriarch can denounce Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even while another supports it
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis: Stop the War in Ukraine! Silence the guns! Negotiate seriously for peace!
On Day 32 of the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis made another passionate appeal to political leaders “to understand that every day of war makes worse the situation for everyone.”