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
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
Almost 1,000 Polish Catholic convents have opened their doors to Ukraine’s refugees. The UN refugee agency says by March 14, almost 1.8 million people had entered Poland from Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24. The Council of Major Superiors of Congregations of Women Religious (the Major Superiors) in Poland says as at Read more
The response of Catholic moral theologians to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been universally negative. “The war in Ukraine is a spiritual, human and ecological catastrophe,” said Eli S. McCarthy, a peace activist at Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies, in a recent email to me. The view is shared by Catholic pacifists as Read more
With queues at the border to Poland up to 15km long the Catholic Church is stepping up to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Among those providing support is the Catholic charity Caritas Australia, who is working directly with Caritas Ukraine and its local partner Caritas Spes. Funds to support the charity’s work in Ukraine have Read more
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has agreed to send $10,000 to support Caritas work in Ukraine as we stand in solidarity with our sister organisations and with the people of Ukraine. “We pray for all the people in Ukraine, especially the vulnerable and marginalised communities who will be most severely impacted by the recent invasion of Read more
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
As more cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus are being registered in Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has said that he will lend ecclesial properties at hospitals if the need should arise. During a livestreamed March 22 Mass, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, referred to a Read more
The Ukraine government has passed new sex abuse legislation that clears the way for paedophiles to be chemically castrated, jailed for lengthier periods and monitored for life. The castration process – which is confined to offenders aged between 18 and 65 – will involve “coercive chemical castration” by injecting anti-androgen drugs to reduce libido and Read more
While parliament fiddles, Europe burns, or at least sputters into flame. History could not be clearer. The diversion of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict into the Sea of Azov is precisely the kind of escalation that has preceded Europe’s past cataclysms. A great power treats a little one with contempt. A little one responds with violence, expecting Read more