The recent events in Ukraine are not what many news sources, even respected ones, imagine them to be. First, Ukraine was not a battleground where Russia and the West were hammering it out. Indeed, 99% of what was taking place on ‘the maidan’, the central square in Kyiv, was based on issues internal to Ukraine. Read more
In a serious escalation of tension in Crimea, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest was kidnapped on Saturday. Sources in Ukraine say Father Mykola Kvych, a pastor and a Ukrainian military chaplain, was abducted by pro-Russian forces after celebrating the liturgy. Continue reading
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
A Catholic bishop in the Ukraine, February 19, visited a hospital to give the sacrament of the sick to protesters who had their eyes shot out by rubber bullets, reports the National Review Online. The bishop’s pastoral visit came after at statement by Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, stressing that Read more
For all his ubiquity, the biblical Andrew is a shadowy figure. In one of a handful of scriptural references, he is the apostle who tells Jesus that five loaves and two fishes won’t feed 5,000 people; a miracle soon proves otherwise. Like other widely honoured saints, Andrew himself defies the laws of finitude by appealing Read more