In both the Roman and Byzantine liturgical calendars, Lent 2022 has coincided with a brutal war in Ukraine. That war was launched by Russia’s Vladimir Putin for an ignoble, imperial cause.
Guest Columnists
Salem and the Smoke of Satan
On May 13, 1982, Pope John Paul II flew to Portugal on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving for his life having been spared the year before
Is There Ever A ‘Just War’?
Every war is a defeat for humanity, because men and women endowed with reason should be able to resolve their differences without mass violence.
Lies Against the Truth Of the Resurrection
Even the Bible contains stories of falsehoods. We can find one in the gospel of Matthew against the truth of the resurrection. Accordingly, the guards of the sepulcher where the body of Jesus was laid reported to the chief priests who assembled with the elders and took counsel.
Russian Orthodox Awakening
For years, the two leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church with whom Pope Francis met by videoconference on March 16 — Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’, and Metropolitan Hilarion, the Church’s chief ecumenical officer — have worked to buttress Vladimir Putin’s efforts to reconstitute a simulacrum of the Soviet Union in the name of a Russkiy mir (“Russian world”).
Archbishop Viganó Is Wrong on Ukraine
One of the minor characters in Evelyn Waugh’s World War II trilogy, “Sword of Honor,” is the commander of a super-secret military intelligence unit, Colonel Grace-Groundling-Marchpole: a conspiracy theorist constantly connecting dots that no rational person would imagine connecting or even think connectable.
Most Needed: An Ecumenical Reset
In the early 1990s, I met Kirill, now Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’, when the man christened Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev was chief ecumenical officer of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Lent and the Liberating Light
If you’ve not been in the Vatican basilica on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, by all means put that on your bucket list in the future.
Can We Drink Holy Water?
This question came up when a parishioner approached me to bless a bottle of water for her. Requests like this would seem to be pious, innocent, and not polemical. Hence, in most cases, bottled water would just be blessed without questions asked.
The Truth About Ukraine Strife
For months now, the world press has described Russian troop deployments along Ukraine’s borders as spearheads of a possible invasion. The truth, however, is that Russia invaded Ukraine seven years ago, when it annexed Crimea and Russian “little green men” ignited a war in eastern Ukraine that has taken over 14,000 lives and displaced over a million people.
