Posts Tagged ‘Russia’

Living in the world as it is… while hoping for one that’s better

Monday, May 2nd, 2022
synod

I never met my uncle Martin. If he were alive today, he would be in his 90s, but he died when he was three years old, victim of what would today be a minor infection. However, before the development of antibiotics there was no such thing as a minor infection. Had Martin caught that infection Read more

Sharing at the table: the time has come

Monday, March 28th, 2022
shaping the assembly

As I write this the war news gets grimmer by the day. We have gone in the space of a few weeks from ‘it could not happen’ to ‘not in 2022!’ to ‘is there no respect for life – much less for self-determination – in Putin’s vision?’ Meanwhile, many of us are discovering just how Read more

Prayer, diplomacy, solidarity: floors in same building

Monday, March 28th, 2022

On Friday, in a move that raised the eyebrows of some, Pope Francis consecrated Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A good Jesuit, Francis is applying the maxim “Pray as if everything depended on God, work as if everything depended on you,” a Vatican official told La Croix’s Loup Besmond de Senneville. Read more

Russian Catholics welcome consecration to Mary

Monday, March 21st, 2022

Although Russia’s Catholics hold different views about the conflict in Ukraine, a spokesman for the country’s bishops said all are united in welcoming Pope Francis’ plan to consecrate their country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25 in a service at the Vatican. However, a Catholic professor in the country said the pope’s Read more

Fools and Peacemakers

Monday, February 28th, 2022
peacemaking

It was around 4 pm on Thursday when I checked the global news and saw the words of Vladimir Putin’s invasion speech coming through minute by minute; I had just finished an overnight tramp, something I had done in-part to escape the overwhelmingness of the local and global situation. I often check international news sites Read more

Re-education of Russian pastors likely

Monday, October 4th, 2021

As of October 3 Russian authorities will verify the formation of pastors for faith communities, especially those who have studied abroad. The verification will be of the “religious formation received” by servants of the cult of all religions. The newly renewed Duma will have the power to approve or not “the activity of servants of Read more

Syrians desperate to outrun a brutal regime offensive

Thursday, February 27th, 2020
syrians

It’s freezing cold and the kids don’t have proper shoes, but the elderly Samar couldn’t risk it. Overnight, the bombings got too close. They fled their village in a panic, the older children carrying the little ones, walking for seven hours just to getaway. The youngest children are shaking, their cheeks are bright pink from Read more

Centenary of Czar Nicholas II’s murder – time to reflect

Monday, July 23rd, 2018

Catholics could remember the centenary of Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918 with “penance and reflection,” says the secretary-general of the Russian bishops’ conference. Msgr. Igor Kovalevsky says killing the royal family “was one of the first steps on a path of mass murder, forced labor, religious persecution and genocide which led on Read more

Nuclear disarmament: religion is key say Nobel Prize alumni

Monday, November 13th, 2017

There is a major role for faith-based groups to help create a nuclear weapon-free world, Nobel Prize winners said at a nuclear disarmament summit at the Vatican last week. They suggested faith groups could use their ability to mobilise people and public opinion, and lay out the moral and spiritual case for disarmament. The Nobel Read more

The 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution

Thursday, October 26th, 2017

One hundred years ago on October 25 (Old Style Calendar), a Marxist political movement led by an intellectual political activist named Vladimir Lenin mounted a successful coup d’état against Russia’s ailing Provisional Government. Most believed the Bolsheviks would themselves be overthrown quickly. Scarcely anyone recognized that the event marked the beginning of one of the Read more