Pope Francis to sit out ceremonies because of knee pain (The New York Times) Pope Francis has abandoned plans for a trip to Florence this weekend and will be unable to preside over Ash Wednesday services next week because of acute knee pain, the Vatican said on Friday. The pope’s doctor had “prescribed a period of greater rest for the leg” because of “acute gonalgia,” or knee pain, the Vatican explained in a note…
Ukrainian priest begins exorcism aimed at Putin (Crux) A Byzantine priest from Lviv, a native of Donetsk who became famous throughout Ukraine after being captured by separatists in 2014, announced the beginning of an exorcism ritual aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian Catholic Father Tykhon Kulbaka wrote about his actions in a Feb. 25 post on Facebook, reported the Religious Information Service of Ukraine, based at the Catholic University of Lviv…
Things to know about the Catholic Church in Ukraine (CNA) About 9% of Ukrainians are Greek Catholics, meaning they are Catholics who belong to Churches of the Byzantine Rite. Virtually all of these are part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is led by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuck of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Kyiv-Halych. The Byzantine Rite celebrates the liturgy in the form used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, regularly using the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom…
How is the invasion of Ukraine tied to religion? (AP) Ukraine’s tangled political history with Russia has its counterpart in the religious landscape, with Ukraine’s majority Orthodox Christian population divided between an independent-minded group based in Kyiv and another loyal to its patriarch in Moscow. But while there have been appeals to religious nationalism in both Russia and Ukraine, religious loyalty doesn’t mirror political fealty amid Ukraine’s fight for survival. Even though Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine in part as a defense of the Moscow-oriented Orthodox church, leaders of both Ukrainian Orthodox factions are fiercely denouncing the Russian invasion, as is Ukraine’s significant Catholic minority…
Retired Erie bishop Donald Trautman dies (GoErie.com) Retired Bishop Donald W. Trautman, who headed the Catholic Diocese of Erie for 22 years, until October 2012, leading hundreds of thousands of the faithful in northwestern Pennsylvania during a period of immense change and deep scandal, died on Saturday evening. He was 85 and had been a resident Saint Mary’s of Asbury Ridge in Millcreek Township, serving the diocese as its only bishop emeritus. He died at Saint Mary’s…
Transgender Catholics encounter both rejection and welcome (AP) For transgender Catholics across the United States, retaining their faith can entail complex calculations. They face rebukes from some fellow Catholics, including many bishops, yet find full acceptance in some premises of the church. A small but growing number of parishes have formed LGBTQ ministries or support groups and warmly welcome transgender people on their own terms. Yet within the past two years, at least six Catholic dioceses have issued guidelines targeting trans people with restrictions and refusing to recognize their gender identity…
