Hundreds of tonnes of food from Western nations have been destroyed in Russia as part of campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin. The destruction has caused an outcry from anti-poverty campaigners who say the food should have been given to the poor A petition against the action on change.org has already attracted more than 300,000 Read more
Pope Francis has urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to make a “sincere and great effort” to achieve peace in the Ukraine. When Mr Putin met the Pope at the Vatican on Wednesday, he was received with full honours and regalia, including a ceremonial Swiss Guard welcome. Pope Francis seemed stiff and exceptionally formal when he Read more
The Catholic Church in Russian-occupied Crimea fears it will lose its legal status after failing to meet a deadline for re-registering under Russian law. Failure to meet the March 1 deadline could mean liquidation for the Church, said Ukraine’s Religious Freedom Institute in a statement. The requirement to re-register was designed to force clergy and Read more
Amid talk of whether Vladimir Putin would leave the G20 early and numerous reports of frosty encounters between him and other summit leaders, Western media coverage has generally operated from the sometimes forcefully expressed underlying assumption that the West is dealing with an erratic and dangerous dictator whose rule damages the once-great country he leads. Read more
Imagine if the pope were invited to address a summit of Protestant leaders, and used the platform to take a swipe at Italy’s tiny Waldensian Protestant church — complaining that it tries to convert Catholics, and demanding that it shut up about the separation of church and state. Protestants would rightly howl about how crude Read more
We appear to have reached one of those extraordinary moments in history when people everywhere, communities and even entire nations, feel increasingly stressed and vulnerable. The same may be said of the planet as a whole. Whether intellectually or intuitively, many are asking the same question: Where are we heading? How do we explain the Read more
While pro-Russian and pro-Western media have been spinning the Crimea crisis as either a heroic exercise in righting a past wrong or a land grab by a new Hitler, the legal position is far from straightforward. Crimea was once an independent Tatar khanate, captured by Russia in the 18th century. The Tatars were deported by Read more
In recent days, the Ukrainian peninsula has been at the heart of what some have described as the greatest international crisis of the 21st century. But this is not the first time the region has been so critical to international affairs. Many educated people have at least heard of the great struggle known as the Read more
Ukrainian Catholic bishops have asked for prayers for peace, but have also defended their nation’s right to self determination. Bishop Bronislaw Bernacki of Odessa-Simferopol, whose diocese includes Crimea, said Catholics believed “every nation has a right to decide about its own future”. He asked Christians worldwide to “fast and pray for peace”. “The Catholic Church Read more
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church appealed for the unity of his country as Russia effectively took over the Crimea region. In a statement on Feburary 28, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyc also prayed for the people of Crimea. “The entire family of the UGCC faithful pleads to the compassionate Lord for Read more