More than a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington is reminding Catholics that regardless of the amount of news coverage the war does or doesn’t receive, it’s important to draw inspiration from the affected Ukrainian civilians and children “to intensify our prayers and commitment to peace.”
U.S. President Joe Biden’s unexpected Feb. 20 visit to Kyiv, calmly walking alongside Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as air raid sirens wailed in the capital, is being hailed as a surprise and a signal to the world, Ukrainian Catholic leaders told OSV News.
As Ukraine faces the one-year anniversary Feb. 24 of the full-scale invasion of its country by Russian forces, Catholic Church leaders and providers of humanitarian relief there say the conflict has taken its toll but has not defeated the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine’s Catholic military chaplains will eventually be “catalysts for the rebuilding” of their war-torn nation, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose three days in Ukraine included at times sheltering with Ukrainians as Russian missiles relentlessly rained down on civilian centers.
Celebrating Christmas is important and beautiful, Pope Francis said, but he asked people to spend less on their celebrations this year and donate the savings to help the people of Ukraine.
Deacon Logusch, a child of Ukrainian immigrants and now retired after a career in chemistry and teaching, told about 40 Ukrainian parishioners gathered at St. Mary’s Assumption Nov. 27 that he hopes the world fully appreciates the long-standing and well-established territorial ambitions of Russian expansionism.
After two of its clergy were detained by Russian forces last week, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Donetsk has warned they could be victims of torture and has called for their immediate release.
Nine months after Russia launched its war on Ukraine, Pope Francis wrote to the Ukrainian people expressing his admiration for their courage and commitment to their country in the face of so much death and destruction.
Pope Francis has continued to call on Russian and Ukrainian leaders to negotiate an end to the war, but the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church told him Russia wants only the destruction of Ukraine.
Catholic organizations and religious orders are calling President Joe Biden to undertake diplomatic means to prevent nuclear war with Russia.
