The outrage follows the death last month of a 59-year-old Orthodox priest, Fr Stepan Podolchak (pictured). The Tablet reports he was tortured to death by Russian soldiers.

Human rights groups condemned his death and those of other priests as egregious violations of religious freedom and as potential war crimes.

Arrests and torture for refusing Russian demands

Maksym Vasin, executive director of the Institute for Religious Freedom, revealed disturbing accounts from Ukrainian clergy detained by Russian troops.

He said they reported being tortured, beaten and subjected to inhumane treatment for refusing to collaborate with Moscow's religious authorities.

"Ukrainian religious leaders were subjected to beatings, arbitrary imprisonment, torture and even attempted rape...for refusing to submit to Russian religious centres" Vasin stated.

Some testified they were abused for declining orders to learn the Russian national anthem.

Lethal strikes on places of worship

The scale of the Russian military assault on Ukraine's spiritual fabric is staggering.

Yevhen Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, said at least 30 priests have been killed and 26 imprisoned by Russian forces since the invasion began in February 2022.

Ruslan Khalikov, head of the Religion on Fire project documenting attacks, confirmed that over 550 religious buildings across Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, with many deliberately struck despite there being no military targets nearby.

"There are cases when a church is the only building...and there is no nearby object that the Russians could aim at and miss" Khalikov said, emphasising such strikes likely constitute war crimes under international law.

Alleged motives

According to Vasin, clergy reported three key drivers fuelling the mistreatment by Russian military:

• Russian hatred and suppression of Ukrainian identity
• Persecution of denominations outside the Russian Orthodox Church
• Refusal to take orders from Kremlin-allied religious leaders

"The Russian military and representatives...could not believe that Ukrainian religious leaders...could be independent" Vasin added.

Global outcry "egregious violations"

While Moscow has denied the allegations, human rights groups have forcefully condemned Russia's actions, decrying the systematic campaign as an unconscionable attack on religious liberty.

On the invasion's second anniversary, Robert Rehak, chairman of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance, revealed that over 50 Ukrainian clergy had been killed or imprisoned

Russia had committed "egregious violations of religious freedom" he said.

As the conflict grinds on, concerns mount over the indiscriminate targeting of Ukraine's sacred spaces and spiritual leaders defending their nation's sovereignty against Russian aggression.

Source

• The Tablet

"The IOR does not receive or invest money from Russia," read a statement by the Institute for Religious Works, using the Italian acronym IOR for the institution more commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank. "The IOR strongly rejects the allegations of the Councillor, according to whom the IOR would be investing Russian money."

The Vatican Bank insisted the institute only provides financial services to Catholic organisations and that it is held to the highest possible international standards.

Read More

The Ukrainian children were taken to Russia during the war.

The plan

The Holy See's plan to reunite the children followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's explicit request for its help, when he met Pope Francis at the Vatican in May. Russia is said to be willing to engage in the process.

The Vatican official discussed the plan last Thursday after the Pope's peace envoy, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, returned to the Vatican from Washington.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Zuppi met President Joe Biden last Tuesday, after earlier missions to Kyiv and Moscow.

In Moscow, he had met one of President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisers, Yuri Ushakov, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights.

A White House official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a large part of Biden's discussion with Zuppi concerned the Vatican effort to reunite Ukrainian children.

Catholic Biden welcomes Vatican plan

Zuppi delivered a letter from Pope Francis to Biden, "emphasising the pope's sorrow for the suffering caused by the war," the Vatican says.

The White House official noted Biden, a Catholic, welcomed the Vatican's peace efforts.

The President and Zuppi discussed "the Holy See's efforts providing humanitarian aid to address the widespread suffering caused by Russia's continuing aggression in Ukraine, as well as the Vatican's advocacy for the return of forcibly deported Ukrainian children."

During the meeting, Biden assured Zuppi of "full readiness to support initiatives in the humanitarian field, particularly for children and the most fragile people, both to respond to this urgency and to foster pathways to peace."

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant in late March for Putin and Lvova-Belova. They are accused of abducting children from Ukraine.

Russian officials deny any forced transfers of children. Some Ukrainian children are in foster care, they say.

Now what?

The Vatican's initiative is not unprecedented.

It organised Russia-Ukraine prisoner swaps by delivering lists of prisoners to be exchanged, though how many prisoners were exchanged is unclear.

However, the Vatican official says Russia has expressed a willingness to engage in a similar "mechanism" or process of exchanging lists involving the return of Ukrainian children.

Lvova-Belova's meeting with Zuppi in June is significant, the official says.

Whether Russia has put other conditions on the children's return - including numbers and when the operation might get under way - remains unknown.

Spreading the word

While he was in Washington, Zuppi described the Vatican reunification plan to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission.

Zuppi's delegation also attended the Senate Prayer Breakfast. During this, "Zuppi had the opportunity to brief the participants on the meetings he had during the various stages of his peace mission," the Vatican says.

Source

• AP News

He is raising questions about the ethical implications of the Catholic President's move.

Malloy, in a statement issued by the Peace Committee, highlighted the fact that numerous countries, including the Holy See, have ratified the International Convention on Cluster Munitions.

This convention explicitly prohibits using, producing, transferring and stockpiling these armaments.

"More than 100 countries, including the Holy See, have signed the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions which bans their use due to their indiscriminate nature and the risks they pose to civilian populations long after the cessation of hostilities," writes Malloy.

He also noted that the United States and Russia have not signed the agreement, highlighting the urgent need for participation.

Malloy and his predecessors have consistently called on the US government to endorse both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty.

Last week, the Defense Department made an announcement regarding the provision of "additional security assistance" to address Ukraine's critical security and defence requirements.

The assistance includes the shipment of cluster bombs which are designed to explode above a target and release smaller submunitions that can cause substantial damage to personnel and military equipment.

Critics argue that these bombs pose significant risks to civilian populations due to their wide coverage area.

Additionally, there is concern about the potential for unexploded ordnance remaining on battlefields, posing ongoing threats to civilians long after conflicts have ended.

President Biden's decision to supply Ukraine with cluster munitions faced bipartisan opposition in Congress this week.

Several dozen Democrats joined Republicans in voting to amend the National Defense Authorisation Act to block these munitions' shipment.

However, the amendment ultimately failed to pass.

Bishop Malloy highlighted that Pope Francis has addressed the issue of antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions, urging all countries to commit to these conventions in order to prevent further harm to individuals.

While recognising Ukraine's right to self-defence, Malloy highlighted the importance of continued prayers for dialogue and peace.

Malloy expressed his support for and shared Pope Francis' moral concerns and aspirations regarding this matter.

Sources

• US Catholic Bishops
• CNA

Some propose peace simply defined as a halt to the fighting.

They cite the suffering: More than 300,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, thousands of civilians have been killed, and more than nine million Ukrainians have been displaced and have become refugees.

Sirens, shortages, and missiles continuously frighten Ukrainian civilians; trauma and grief pervade. And no end is in sight.

Running through Pope Francis' more than 100 statements about the war is the leitmotif that war itself is the problem—absurd, a tragedy, a defeat for humanity.

More coolly, political realists say that Ukraine does not stand a reasonable chance of rolling back the Russian invasion and that trying to do so risks nuclear war.

And in the United States, some politicians call for scaling back a commitment to Ukraine that is expensive and, they say, not in our national interest. All of these voices put forth minimal peace, prioritising an end to the fighting.

The implication is that Ukraine should be coaxed or forced into negotiating.

An end to the war is not true peace, though if it means an end to Ukraine.

Sts Augustine and Thomas Aquinas held that the purpose of a just war is a just peace.

Pope Paul VI echoed this point on the Day of Peace in 1972 with a statement titled "If You Want Peace, Work for Justice."

A just peace would reverse Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its bids to control Ukrainian territory since 2014—frontal assaults on the most basic tenet of international law, the integrity of sovereign states.

Motivating this aggression is Mr Putin's version of peace, a "Pax Russica" that denies Ukraine's existence as a nation.

But recognising this manifestly unjust peace, Pope Francis has increasingly amended his previous neutrality and condemned Russia's aggression.

Ukraine's counteroffensive and its allies' supplying of arms to it, then, are justified.

In a Christian ethic, though, a just peace involves more than defeating aggression.

The just war ethic that dominates Christian thought on war and peace took shape during the Middle Ages when the church adopted a concept of justice from Roman law: the constant will to render another his due.

This concept came to dominate modern international law, which means the rights of nations and people to be independent. Russia's exit is thus "due" to Ukraine.

The notion of justice as rendering due, though, has occluded the original justice of the Bible, which means comprehensive right relationship, expressed by the Hebrew term sedeq and the Greek term dikaiosune.

This justice is compatible with rights and law but is wider, also including virtues such as gift-giving and performing mercy.

It culminates in God's reconciliation of the world to himself in the cross and resurrection, which the Apostle Paul describes as God's justice.

A season of war may not seem to be a time to speak of reconciliation and peacebuilding.

These words exude a symmetry of fault, suggesting that both sides must recognise their own wrongs and embrace each other.

Meanwhile, Ukrainians are fighting and dying to secure the freedom of their assaulted nation.

Reconciliation, though, is not relativism, nor is peacebuilding moral passivity.

Aspiring to restore the right relationship, just reconciliation recognises the balance of injustices in the war. Continue reading

• Daniel Philpott is a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Reconciliation (2012) and has been involved in reconciliation as an activist in Kashmir and in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, as well as in efforts to address the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

Since the end of February 2022, they have welcomed hundreds of needy families.

"During the first few weeks of the war, there was a lot of movement in our monastery. People came from many different cities in Ukraine, such as Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Boryspil, Irpin, Zhytomyr, Chernobyl, Odessa, Horlivka, Slovyansk, Donetsk and Luhansk.

It was mostly women and children, accompanied by their husbands who would help their families cross the border before returning to fight for their country", explains Sister Klara.

The nuns estimate that to date, more than 500 people have been through their monastery.

"Currently, the monastery mostly hosts those who do not plan to go abroad, and some of them don't have a home to return to either. Now we have 75 people here, including the sisters from our community in Zhytomyr", says Sister Klara.

The Benedictines of Zhytomyr were finally forced to evacuate their convent after spending several days in air raid shelters in the basement of the local cathedral, as their building was under constant threat of bombardment.

To help people overcome these difficult and traumatic times, the nuns involve everyone in the daily chores and services, such as cleaning the monastery or working in the kitchen and the dining hall.

One of the cells has been turned into a playroom for the 20 children who are staying there.

Roman, Anna and child

Roman, Anna and their two children, a month-old baby and a seven-year-old boy, are one of the families currently living in Solonka.

They are originally from Kharkiv and held on for 10 days or so after the war started, but when the situation worsened, they decided to leave.

They had already packed their bags and were in the hallway when a rocket hit their building.

"The house caught fire; all the windows were blown out", Roman tells ACN.

They thought they would not be able to leave because the house was filled with thick black smoke.

The neighbour's house had also been hit, causing even more damage.

Out in the street, people were running in all directions to get as far from the house as possible, fearing the gas pipes might explode. Roman and Anna took their children and their bags and started walking.

Eventually, they waved down a car that drove them to the house of a friend's mother. "But there were bombings there as well, especially at night. It was awful. We couldn't sleep, and the kids were getting nervous", Roman explains.

They decided to head to Lviv on the train with other refugees.

When they arrived, they realised that what they had read online was true, the city was overcrowded, and there were no rooms available.

Anna found a place to stay on the floor of a home for mothers and their children, but that was not what she wanted, especially as her baby was still so small.

With growing frustration, they were going from one place to the next, but nobody was able to help.

Finally, they sat on a bench, completely worn out.

The baby was cold, and they didn't know what to dress it in.

That was when a nun came up to them and asked: "Do you have a place to stay? Is anybody expecting you?"

They replied in the negative, adding that they were desperate.

The nun suggested they go to the monastery, where they were given a clean room, food, clothes and powdered milk for the baby.

Anna was beside herself with joy. "We will remember this moment and be grateful for the rest of our lives."

Later they learned that Sister Hieronima, the nun who offered them help, had not planned to go by the train station that day but felt that she should see if anybody needed help.

Anna has no doubt: "It was divine providence. A sign from God!" and Roman agrees: "The Lord saved us!"

The sisters have left their cloister and the silence to which they are usually committed, but they believe that this is what God is asking of them at this time.

"This is how our community of nuns and monks reads the signs of the times, and this is how we envision our service now".

This ministry of selfless hospitality is bringing many people closer to God.

"Most of the refugees are not believers, but sometimes they come to pray", explains Sister Klara.

"During the feast of the Annunciation, we celebrated the wedding of an elderly couple from Zhytomyr in our church. Another young couple from Kharkiv is preparing for the sacraments of reconciliation and marriage and will also baptise their son. Several people have made their first confession".

She ends by saying that despite all this new work and dedication, prayer time continues to be the mainstay of their lives.

"We have kept up our rhythm of common prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, and we have additional hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Glory to the Lord in all things!"

• María Lozano writes for Aid to the Church in Need.
• Republished with permission.

The Italian version of the paper devoted most of its 24 May front page to the matter saying the crisis will be particularly catastrophic in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

The paper says the food shortage is a direct result of the war in Ukraine and will most likely be catastrophic in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

Citing reports from CNN, The Guardian and The Times on the grain shortage, the L'Osservatore mentions a possible military response to the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain exports.

"A war within the war could in the long run even lead to a greater number of deaths than the conflict itself if the deadlock linked to the tons of grain still in the ports of Ukraine is not resolved," says the L'Osservatore.

L'Osservatore Romano is the daily newspaper of Vatican City State which reports on the activities of the Holy See and events taking place in the Church and the world. It is owned by the Holy See but is not an official publication.

The paper reports there are some 22 million tons of corn blocked from distribution from which the Russians are constantly stealing.

It is urging the world community to help Ukraine unblock seaports otherwise an energy crisis will be followed by a global food crisis.

"The time we have left is very short.

"We are approaching a new harvest and there is no other practical way to export grain other than through the Black Sea port of Odessa, "Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian.

The Lithuanian minister has proposed a naval operation not managed by NATO, that would protect ships loaded with grain as they sail across the Black Sea beyond the Russian blockade.

Landsbergis also suggested that countries affected by grain shortages such as Egypt could help ensure the necessary protection.

The Times newspaper confirms that the UK is also working on the creation of a "coalition of the willing" to send warships to the Black Sea in order to offer a protected corridor to merchant ships carrying Ukrainian grain.

With this year's wheat harvest estimated to be 40 per cent lower in Ukraine, Italian agricultural agency Coldiretti says the conflict has dealt a severe blow to the Ukrainian economy.

Source

• L'Osservatore Romano

In a recent media interview Francis says Patriarch Kirill's support of the war in Ukraine became clear to him during their 40-minute zoom discussion in March.

In this, Kirill spent half the time reading out justifications for President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. "I listened and told him: I don't understand anything about this.

"Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics, but that of Jesus.

"We are shepherds of the same holy people of God. That is why we must seek ways of peace."

It was in this context that Francis added: "The Patriarch cannot become Putin's altar boy."

Francis has successfully engaged with Kirill in the past.

In 2016 he and the Patriarch had an historic meeting in Havana, Cuba (pictured) - the first in nearly 1,000 years since the split between Eastern orthodoxy and Rome.

A second encounter had been planned to take place in Jerusalem in June this year but has been called off.

Steadfast, diplomatic peacemaking

On Sunday, the Pope appealed for peace in Ukraine and called the suffering of vulnerable elderly people and children a "macabre regression of humanity".

He has offered to meet Putin in Moscow as part of the Holy See's peace efforts but the Kremlin has yet to respond.

"I fear that Putin cannot and does not want to have this meeting right now," he says.

His efforts for peace have seen him repeatedly condemn the invasion of Ukraine in February and the suffering it is causing. He avoids mentioning Russia and Putin by name however.

Meantime, the Vatican seeks to work through its diplomatic channels and maintain dialogue with the Russian orthodox leadership.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's Secretary of State and - in the pope's words - a "great diplomat", has offered the Vatican's services as a mediator.

It is possible that NATO "barking at the door of Russia" may have facilitated the conflict, Francis suggests.

He likens the situation in Ukraine to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the 1930s civil war in Spain, in his condemnation of the arms trade.

Wars take place to "test" the weapons that have been made, he says.

"I don't know how to answer- I am too far away - whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians."

Back in 2014, the Pope warned that a third world war was taking place in a piecemeal fashion. At that time, he pointed to conflicts in Syria, Yemen and "now one war after another in Africa".

During his meeting last month with the President of Hungary, Viktor Orban, the Hungarian leader told him that Russia planned to end the war on May 9, when Russia celebrates its victory over Nazi Germany.

"I am pessimistic," Francis says.

"But we must make every possible effort to stop the war."

Source

• The Tablet
• Image: AmericaMagazine

The Russia-Ukraine war isn't a war of military combat between armies using weapons, she explains.

It's something else. She speaks of massacres. Of dead children. Dead civilians. Of repression and brutal sexual assaults on women and children.

Sister Ligy Payyappilly sees a lot of refugees fleeing the conflict in the east of Ukraine. She lives in a western town near the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian and Romanian borders.

Her information is probably accurate and fresh. It's garnered from refugees. Her convent and other religious houses in western Ukraine have been housing refugees since the war began. Most refugees are women and children.

Payyappilly says press reports of Russian human rights abuses and war crimes committed by Russian troops in areas they control are true.

"Is it what we call war?" she asks.

"Shooting innocent men point blank, raping young women and mothers in front of their children, brutally injuring the pregnant women? How can these people become so cruel?

"Here women and girls have recounted the abuse they are suffering at the hands of Russian soldiers. Women are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war."

Payyappilly recounts horror story after horror story. Rapes. Children exposed to supreme evil. Wickedness. Hideous deaths. Mass killings.

"I do not know how many days it will take to bury them," she says of all the dead.

"This is butchering of the innocents. No civilised society can approve it."

Ukraine is living its Way of the Cross - but still has hope

"Since February 24, this war has become our Good Friday," Payyappilly says.

"We know that Jesus went up from Pilate to Golgotha, his face and clothes covered in blood - the same is happening today in Ukraine; the blood of the innocent is everywhere.

"Truly, here we can meet many mothers who mourn their children just as Mary suffered before the Cross for her beloved Son... the more this war goes on, the more innocent people will die. Today Golgotha is really in Ukraine.

"But we know that Easter comes after Good Friday. We believe and know that God is with us. Easter will come for us too; our sufferings will end.

"Let us pray that the dawn of the Resurrection may come for us too. Jesus died for us. He knows our sufferings and can understand us. We are waiting for our Easter, especially for Ukraine, an Easter of hope and peace."

There's something else she's concerned about too: Ukraine and Russia, two predominantly Orthodox nations with much shared history, are now at war.

"People of God fighting each other. Brothers separated in peace, now fighting to conquer the other. It is heartbreaking," she says.

Source

• Crux
• Image: 1News

New Zealand's history of helping out people amid violent conflicts include Polish refugees in the 1940s, Vietnamese and Cambodian people in the 1970s and 1980s, and people from Somalia in the 1990s and 2000s.

David Cooper of immigration firm Malcolm Pacific has spent 40 years helping countless numbers of people come here to restart their lives, many from war-torn countries.

"There were the Vietnamese in the 1980s, the Somalis in the 1990s and the 2000s. They all have one thing in common, and that is hope. Hope of a new future, hope that they and their loved ones will be safe, hope that they can go on and have a better life than the one they are leaving behind.''

This week the Government announced it would offer visas to the parents and wider family of New Zealand Ukrainians, in an effort to help as many as 4000 people to escape the war raging in their homeland.

"They're running from a war-torn country. They're coming with a bag of their belongings. Their apartment has been destroyed and in many cases they have had to leave family members behind, not knowing if they are safe. It's incredibly frightening because the life they once knew doesn't exist anymore and the future is unknown.'"

But the Ukrainians would face some different challenges to the migrants who came here before them, and the Government needed to think about what additional support they would need, he said.

"They'll be going to live with their families straight away instead of going to the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre. Refugees who spend time there get health checks and learn about New Zealand before they become part of our communities. Many refugees and survivors of war suffer from issues such as PTSD, so we need to look at what the Government can do for them with the services that are already in place.

Their arrival could also place additional stress on their Ukrainian New Zealand families.

"There are a number of things Kiwis can do to help to take the stress off those families, and it can be as simple as cooking some meals, lending them a car, and including them as part of their communities. New Zealanders do a very good job of supporting refugees.''

However, Cooper was critical of the Government's decision to only allow the Ukrainians, who were not considered to be refugees, a two-year-working visa, and no student visas. That would mean a 19-year-old coming here would have no pathway to university or study unless they become a fee-paying international student, he said.

"The other thing that is a problem is that the working visa doesn't give them a pathway to residence, which means they can only stay here two years, so in two years' time that gives them something else to be anxious about.

"We have no idea whether the war will be over then, or whether these people will have anything to go back to, if they want to.'' Continue reading

New Zealand's bishops are asking Catholics to offer special prayers for everyone caught in the Ukraine war by going to their local parish church on Friday to pray the Rosary.

Bishop Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Auckland and Secretary of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, says visiting a church next Friday to pray the Rosary would be a show of solidarity for everyone caught in the Ukraine war.

"All over Ukraine, people are having to flee their homes because of the war.

"Leaving our homes here in Aotearoa New Zealand to go to our local church to pray on this special day would very much be showing solidarity to the people having to leave their homes in Ukraine.

"Normally we would have a Mass or advertise a time for the Rosary but with the current Covid-19 restrictions imposing a limit of 100, we are hoping people will visit their local church throughout the day.

"The bishops too will also be heading to their respective cathedrals to pray the Rosary on Friday in support of Pope Francis.

"What is important is leaving your homes on Friday to visit your local church, at a time that suits you. We will be asking all churches to be open from 7am to 7pm so as many people as possible can visit at different times during the day, in keeping with the Covid-19 restrictions."

Lowe says prayers would be offered for everyone: those who have been wounded or killed; the people caring for the wounded; refugees and for those caring for them.

"And we will pray that the Russian leadership and soldiers may have a change of heart."

Lowe says during Lent, which is about change, the conversion of the heart, "Christ calls us to love our enemies and to embrace each other as brothers and sisters.

"And as we pray for Ukraine we also remember those caught in other conflicts, including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere."

Acting as the Universal Pastor of the Church, Francis will renew the consecration urged at Fatima more than 100 years ago.

The actual prayer of consecration will take place in St Peter's Basilica at around 6:30 pm on 25 March (Rome time); the feast of the Annunciation.

To watch the whole ceremony, international media recommends setting an alarm for 5:00 am on Saturday 26 (NZ time), or tune in at around 6:30 am Saturday to watch Pope Francis recite the prayer of consecration.

The entire service will be broadcast across Vatican News' channels—radio, YouTube, website, and Facebook—and accompanied by English-language commentary.

Source

• Catholic.org.nz
• CruxNow
• Image: Angelus News

"We welcome this announcement in that it provides a shelter from the storms of war. It's a way out for vulnerable Ukrainians leaving a war zone and seeking to reunite with family members.

"This expanded category is probably the most effective way to provide asylum quickly to some people fleeing Ukraine who already have family settled in the community here to provide support" says Roger Ellis, Engagement Manager for Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

On Tuesday, the government announced a Special Ukraine Policy visa aimed at supporting 4000 family members of Ukrainian-born New Zealanders.

"We are pleased with the announcement and supportive of family reunification. It is in keeping with the biblical injunction to love our neighbours as ourselves" says Ellis.

"The government policy is aimed at the 1600 Ukrainians living here and enables them to bring family members here. They have to accommodate those family members who will get a two-year work visa and their children will be able to go to school. It's somewhat different to the UN refugees who are basically homeless with no relatives here and so need more help on arrival."

Ellis says Caritas's understanding is that the Ukrainian policy is a special humanitarian arrangement for family sponsorship which goes beyond the usual family immigration categories.

At present, Caritas Aotearoa NZ is helping its sister agency Caritas Ukraine in its work with displaced people in Ukraine, he says.

So far it has raised $78,000 to help Caritas Ukraine provide urgent food, water, shelter and other emergency supplies which are being offered to the 100,000-plus people it has assisted so far.

Ellis says it's estimated that more than 2.5 million people have fled their homes and are crossing the border to neighbouring countries.

Pros and cons of the new Ukraine policy

One of Caritas's reservations about the new policy is that there are many former refugee families in Aotearoa who have been waiting years for reunification with family members who have fled war, conflict and violence in other parts of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East.

He would like to see their need being met "in a timelier way".

Ellis notes resettlement as refugees through the UN refugee quota or through Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship would take some time (years, rather than months).

On TodayFM, Nai Jit Lam, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Deputy Regional Representative in Canberra says there is no need to temporarily relocate people here just yet.

"It really is difficult to say how this is going to go, in terms of the conflict," he says.

"The situation is very fluid, it's still evolving".

He suggests that supporting European countries who are helping Ukraine could have a flow-on effect. In his view help should focus more on those accepting refugees.

"The most crucial work that we are trying to do is to keep that access open, keeping humanitarian aid and assistance - the logistics of it".

The NZ Green Party immigration spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman sees this very differently however.

"Ukrainians here are saying something quite different to what we just heard from UNHCR which is actually there are quite a few people who do want to re-settle and, of course, go back if the situation allows," she says.

Source

• TodayFM
• Stuff
• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand (supplied)
• Image: RNZ

The Catholic Church in Poland is among those stepping up to welcome and care for for them and is encouraging all Poles to do the same.

Poles as one are responding with open arms.

The result: every town in Poland has Ukrainian refugees.

Extraordinarily, despite the million-plus refugees, there is not one refugee camp in the country.

The Poles have seen to it that there's no need. They're housing them themselves.

Right from the moment the refugees enter Poland they are welcomed with a greeting from the Border Patrol: "You are safe now."

One refugee describes her journey to Poland saying: "It was scary - there were planes flying over our heads. Some of our friends had to stop on the way because there was a shooting in the fields."

Then she crossed the border. "Here in Poland, I really felt what fraternity is" she says.

Bishop Andrzej Jeż of Tarnów is one of those hosting a growing number of people.

Last Friday he had a family of four, then on Saturday another family arrived.

Kraków hotelier Jerzy Donimirski is also hosting refugees. A Catholic and member of the Order of Malta, he has 45 living in his 4-star hotel.

Besides hosting refugees, the Church is helping in other ways.

Dominican Sisters from central Poland, for instance, are officially running a humanitarian corridor with trucks moving regularly between Poland and Ukraine, where their sisters serve near L'viv.

"We load trucks of food and supplies, and a minivan always accompanies them - it has several seats. They never go back [from L'viv] empty. We take those that want to flee," one says.

While Poland has opened its doors to those fleeing Ukraine, a constant influx of refugees may become challenging soon.

"It is only the beginning," says Bishop Krzysztof Zadarko, head of the Council for Migration of the Polish Bishops' Conference.

"Poland needs to work immediately with migration experts from other countries because, with what we still see in Ukraine regarding war devastation, we need to be ready for many more refugees."

Donimirski agrees. Hosting 45 people isn't easy, even for a hotel owner.

He's had to ask for help to feed them.

"But we need systemic help and for sure, after a month, we will have to think of relocating those families to apartments and more permanent places of stay so that they can integrate fully."

Despite the warm welcome, Ukrainian families would rather be at home - if their homes haven't been destroyed in the meantime.

"One day you just wake up and the life you had to this moment is gone," one woman says.

"And then you realise the most precious thing you have is the people you love and can take with you."

Source

• Crux Now
• Image:ReliefWeb

"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 well as followers of the just war theory. There is no justification for the invasion, they agree. The fighting should stop, and the Russian troops should go home.

Where Catholic moralists begin to disagree is on what means are appropriate in responding to the invasion.

Pacifists like McCarthy believe that a violent response will make matters worse. He bemoans the fact that "we have failed to adequately train people in nonviolent conflict, resistance and civilian-based defence."

But he does see signs of hope. He wrote:

A variety of creative, courageous, nonviolent ways of resistance are being activated and could be scaled up by Ukrainians and others: blocking convoys and tanks … fraternisation of Russian soldiers to lower morale and stimulate defections, humanitarian assistance and caring for refugees, evacuations, the outpouring of public statements by key political leaders, reducing the flow of money to the aggressor (ex. via banks, media, trade, fossil fuels, etc.), supporting the anti-war protesters in Russia, disrupting the technology systems of the aggressor, interrupting disinformation, coalition building, activating key civil society leaders (ex. religious, athletes, business), ex. 100,000 Russians from a variety of sectors have signed petitions to end the war, Russians close to the military and foreign ministry, in the Russian oil industry and billionaires, have spoken out against the war.

McCarthy quotes Pope Francis, who, on the World Day of Peace in 2017, said:

"Violence is not the cure for our broken world. Countering violence with violence leads at best to forced migrations and enormous suffering, because vast amounts of resources are diverted to military ends and away from the everyday needs of young people, families experiencing hardship, the elderly, the infirm and the great majority of people in our world. At worst, it can lead to the death, physical and spiritual, of many people, if not of all."

But pacifists aren't the only ones questioning an armed response to the Russian invasion. The just war theory has never supported fighting a war, even a defensive war, if there is no chance of winning.

"Given the vastly greater strength of the Russian military, it seems inevitable that Russia will eventually take military control of Ukraine," argued John Sniegocki, director of Peace and Justice Studies at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

"The use of violence may slightly delay the Russian takeover," he added, "but it will not prevent it. It will cost many lives in the process, both the lives of Ukrainians who could have potentially played major roles in subsequent mass nonviolent civil resistance and the lives of Russian soldiers, most of whom are conscripts, who don't want to be there and are themselves victims of this unjust situation."

Ukrainian civilians receive weapons training, in the outskirts of Lviv, western Ukraine, Monday, March 7, 2022. AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

Arming civilians in a fight to the death, just war advocates agreed, can't be justified morally, as many will die without much hope of success.

"I think the alternative of civilian defence/resistance, combined with serious economic sanctions, needs to be considered as a realistic, ethical option," said Ron Pagnucco, a self-proclaimed just war advocate and professor of peace studies at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in Minnesota. "Costs can be imposed by nonviolent means, making Russian rule difficult."

Others, however, do not want to close the door absolutely to any act of violence.

"What is so interesting about this conflict and makes the unselfish dedication of the Ukrainian patriots so inspiring," said Lisa Sowle Cahill, an ethicist at Boston College, "is that they are not even debating what is the best course in light of probable numbers of lives lost.

"They are simply saying NO WAY! to the Russians, and in the absence of adequate weapons, using every scrap of ingenuity to foil the invaders' advance.

"They are using nonviolent resistance because they don't have any choice," Cahill said, "but also because they were not looking for bloodshed but just to get rid of the rampaging Russians."

She notes that "President Zelensky keeps proclaiming versions of ‘Our weapon is our truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our children and our country!' They feel they have no choice but to resist. They'll take weapons if they get them, but otherwise, they will face down tanks and throw sand in the road. It is amazingly working — so far."

Likewise David DeCosse, of Santa Clara University's Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, is "moved by the examples of non-violence happening now in Ukraine and persuaded by the wisdom and promise of the just peace framework."

But DeCosse hesitates to say "how far we take the assumption that violence breeds more violence."

He thinks "that is usually the case. But I wonder, too, if there are some situations in which the only way out of the cycle of the violence is violence for the sake of justice."

Gerald Beyer, an associate professor of Christian ethics at Villanova University, agreed that the nonviolent resistance has been remarkable, that economic sanctions are crucial and that military action will "entail horrific loss of life," he said by email.

"But if Russia achieves its aims — and I believe it will without military resistance along with other measures — an entire nation will disappear from the heart of Europe (once again)."

He quotes Russia experts who expect that Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely not stop at Ukraine.

Breyer calls for "more military aid from NATO and the EU (which they are already moving forward) to help the courageous and determined Ukrainians."

Even those preaching nonviolence recognise that the challenges Ukrainians face don't offer many Ukrainians a choice.

"I realise those facing this horrendous situation may feel that violence is their only option, and I would not judge them for that," said Sniegocki.

"However, I do think it important that these broader issues be raised, and that both the power of nonviolent action and the centrality of nonviolence to the teachings of Jesus be reflected upon.

"I think it crucial also," he added, "that each of us seeks to discern what concrete steps we can take to assist the Ukrainian people in this tragic time."

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

A Sunday sermon with very political overtones. It was delivered on February 27 at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow by Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The 75-year-old patriarch castigated those who fight against the historical unity of Russia and Ukraine, calling them "evil forces."

"Protect our common historical homeland"

"God forbid that the present political situation in fraternal Ukraine so close to us should be aimed at making the evil forces that have always strived against the unity of Rus' and the Russian Church, gain the upper hand," he said.

Rus' is a medieval state, considered the ancestor of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Kirill, who was elected patriarch in 2009, has been relatively discreet about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But he clearly supports the vision of the Russian power regarding the unity of the two countries.

"It must not be allowed to give the dark and hostile external forces an occasion to laugh at us; we should do everything to preserve peace between our peoples while protecting our common historical Motherland against every outside action that can destroy this unity," he said on Sunday, while praying for the return of peace.

Restoring the greatness of Russian Orthodoxy

Kirill remained silent during Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. But this time he's displayed more pronounced support.

The context has changed since 2019 when the Patriarchate of Constantinople officially recognised the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's independence from the Moscow Patriarchate. This ended 332 years of Russian religious tutelage over the Ukrainian faithful.

It was a decision the Patriarchate of Moscow saw as an unbearable affront since Ukraine is considered the historical cradle of Russian Orthodoxy.

And it is this Russian Orthodox that Patriarch Kirill wants to return to all its grandeur.

He is one of the most powerful religious dignitaries in the world, heading a Church that has 36,000 parishes and more than 100 million faithful.

Kirill has made it his mission to bring back to the fore a Church that almost disappeared during the Soviet era, in Russia and around the globe.

"Putin remains the master"

On the national scene, the patriarch does not hesitate to lean on the regime of Vladimir Putin — younger than him by six years — with whom he shares an obsession for the greatness of Russia.

Kirill supports the legitimacy of the regime, which in return allows him to extend his influence on society through the defense of traditional values.

President Putin offers the patriarch political and financial support and has said that he sees the Russian Orthodox Church as a "natural partner."

"For Vladimir Putin, religion serves social order and family morality. In exchange, the Church and its patriarch bring religious discourse to the ideology in place," said Jean-François Colosimo, a historian and theologian.

"But it is an unequal exchange, because Putin remains the master. Kirill behaves as a kind of minister of religious affairs and, like any of Putin's ministers, must show submission," he pointed out.

But who really is Patriarch Kirill?

He was born Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev in 1946 in Leningrad and is the heir of a Church that was persecuted for more than 70 years, from the October Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

His father and grandfather were both Orthodox priests who died in the Gulag. And in 1960 the young Gundyayev entered the seminary, being ordained nine years later under the name Kirill.

The budding theologian was quickly identified as a future leader for the Russian Church.

His rapid rise to prominence included an appointment in Geneva as the Russian Church's representative to the World Council of Churches (WCC). He then headed the Moscow Patriarchate's office for external religious (i.e. ecumenical) relations for 20 years (1989-2009).

In 2009, he was elected patriarch under the name of Kirill I, succeeding Alexey II.

No warm relationship with Putin

"Since then, the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia has been committed to carrying the message of Vladimir Putin's regime, wherever the patriarchate is historically present, in the whole territory of the former USSR," explained Colosimo.

But he stressed that the two men do not have a warm relationship.

Kirill's support of Putin's power is somewhat dictated by challenges inside his Church, especially from a fringe that is more nationalistic, anti-Western and anti-ecumenical than he is.

He thus became the first Patriarch of Moscow to meet a Roman pope when he and Pope Francis met in 2016 in Cuba.

Now, six years later, another meeting is under consideration, even if its preparation has become a lot trickier given the context of the war in Ukraine.

• Arnaud Bevilacqua writes for La Croix from France
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

Early starters are KiwiSaver managers, some of whom have been selling millions of dollars in investments in Russian companies. Others, like the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, are reviewing their positions as Russia continues its attack on the Ukraine.

But Barry Coates (pictured), an ethical investment expert, says all New Zealand fund managers should sell their shares in Russian companies. Immediately.

He says it's especially important they sell shares in industries that fund much of Russia's military spending: major state-backed enterprises, government bonds, and oil and gas companies.

"The New Zealand public should be assured that their funds are not supporting the Russian state at a time of massive suffering for the people of Ukraine."

He says most New Zealand investments are in Russian oil and gas companies whose earnings play a major role in financing the Russian military. These should be sold.

"There are also investments in Russian government bonds. While sanctions are not required of New Zealand fund managers, an ethical position would be to divest immediately."

"Sanctions may not be required for KiwiSaver and investment funds that invest our savings, but those funds should divest anyway. It is not a responsible position for New Zealand funds to be investing in Russian companies or the Russian government. It is important that the New Zealand public's hard-earned savings are not used to support Russia's warmongering."

Coates, a former Green MP and current chief executive of Mindful Money, says there was about $100 million invested in Russia at the end of last September. The investments were spread across KiwiSaver, other investments, the NZ Superannuation Fund and ACC.

"While the value [of New Zealand's KiwiSaver] investment is not globally significant, many New Zealanders will be concerned that their funds are being used to support Russian companies at a time when civilians are being terrorised and killed by Russian aggression."

Russia bites back

Just now, pulling investments from Russia might not be a simple matter.

The Bank of Russia has banned brokers from selling securities held by foreigners on the Moscow Exchange.

In addition, the Moscow Exchange has been closed since the beginning of the week amid a full-blown financial crisis triggered by Western sanctions.

Source

• NZ Herald
• Image: Stuff

I often check international news sites and so seeing devasting media coverage is normal, but I knew this was different.

It then hit me all at once that I was, through my computer screen, witnessing the beginning of a war.

Needless to say, I was horrified.

As I continued watching the events unfold, I was, in a rather unusual way, called to prayer.

My typical response to major events like this is to talk with people about it and eventually I will often remember ‘I should probably pray about this.'

But yesterday was different.

And as so, I responded to God. I made the sign of the cross, and asked God for peace, for the protection of the people of Ukraine, and to provide the world with an alternative to this violence.

I then took to Facebook and asked my friends to do the same, quoting Pope Paul VI who famously said: "No more war, war never again."

Fools

Later that day it came to me in thought, maybe a divine thought, that God has already given us an alternative to this violence - Jesus.

And especially the cross.

The weakness of Jesus' cross is the very anthesis of human violence.

It was then I remembered learning in biblical studies that Paul had called the message of the cross "foolishness."

Admittedly, in a phone call with my brother discussing the Ukraine crisis, I felt like a fool when I restated my commitment to non-violence.

But that's exactly why Paul said what he did; ‘in the way of the world' responding to airstrikes, tanks and armed soldiers with more airstrikes, tanks and armed soldiers is the thing to do - in some sense, it's what we've always done, and responding any other way would be foolish.

Peacemakers

But as Christians, as people, we cannot love our enemies as Jesus commands us to, and simultaneously prepare to kill them.

This is not the way of Jesus; this is not Christ-like.

And so, Jesus calls us to another way - what the theologian Walter Wink calls the ‘third way.'

But Jesus didn't just call us this way, he lived it too.

The Prince of Peace scolded Peter as he resorted to violence saying to Peter, "Live by the sword, die by the sword."

By accepting the cross, the Prince of Peace chose not to respond to violence with more violence, or sin with more sin.

Jesus chose to be a peacemaker. And yet we continue again and again to live by the sword and die by the sword.

Christ-like in the current Ukraine crisis

• First, like Jesus, and as God called me to yesterday, we must pray. Pope Francis has called us to the "weakness of prayer" in response to this crisis, including a day of prayer and fasting for peace on Ash Wednesday.
• Second, and again like Jesus, we must stand against the oppressive powers and with the oppressed. In other words, we must be in solidarity Ukraine.
• Third, like Jesus on the cross, we must actively resist violence with non-violence. In other words, we must be peacemakers.

Being a peacemaker does not mean passivity.

Peacemaking involves the active resistance of violence, but not by playing by the same set of rules as violence.

The Christian pacifist Shane Claiborne writes that "Peacemaking is about interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, resisting oppressors without becoming oppressors."

How we do this?

We must turn again to prayer and ask God to show us.

As well as prayer we might also

• Apply a negative screen to our investments in companies that might be even remotely associated with war.
• Consider applying a positive screen to ethically safe peace-based investments.
• Consider contributing to Aid to the Church in Need where we know all contributions are directly spent on the cause.
• Protest outside the Russian Embassy in Wellington.
• Write to the Russian Ambassador.

• Tim O'Farrell is a Catholic committed to Jesus' way of peace and non-violence. He is a master's student at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago.

"Nothing has changed — the great bulk of Russian forces are still here, as fighting flares intermittently and people still die," said Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odessa-Simferopol.

"The east and south of Ukraine are areas of greatest Russification in Ukraine and have always been the main object of Russian interest. So the situation remains insecure — no one knows what will happen."

Diplomatic efforts to persuade Russia to scale back its buildup on Ukraine's eastern border continue. Current estimates indicate Russia has more than 100,000 military personnel at the border.

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