Vatican official reiterates willingness to mediate in Ukraine (Crux) At nearly two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, causing civilian deaths, mass displacement, and crippling damage to infrastructure, the Vatican’s top diplomat has doubled-down on the Holy See’s willingness to help mediate the conflict. Speaking to TV2000, the official television station of the Italian bishops, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Holy See’s intervention in the conflict is happening at several levels, the first of which is “the religious level, which is to invite an insistent prayer so that God grants peace to that martyred land and to involve believers in this choir of prayer…”
Irish Church prepares for flood of Ukrainian refugees (The Irish Times) Ireland’s Catholic bishops are meeting in Maynooth this week to discuss how parishes and dioceses on the island can best help accommodate the many thousands of people from Ukraine expected to arrive here over coming days. It is understood their emphasis will be on practical measures necessary to cope with what is expected will be a sudden influx across the island…
Auxiliary bishop named for Seattle (Holy See Bulletin) The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Frank Schuster, of the clergy of Seattle, as auxiliary bishop of the same archdiocese, assigning him the titular see of Irina…
Caught on video: man trying to steal statue from Queens church (WINS Radio) Police are searching for a man caught on surveillance video attempting to steal a statue from the lawn of a Queens Catholic Church on Sunday. The man is seen on video picking up a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary outside of St. Gerard Majella church in Hollis, removing it from the grotto, putting it over his shoulder and fleeing…
Is blood flowing from statue of St. Michael? (CNA) On Feb. 23, hours before the world would hear that Russia had invaded Ukraine, a statue of St. Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of Kyiv, began to emit a dark liquid which appears to be blood. A video shared on Facebook of the occurrence quickly made headlines. Alicia Martinez, 57, of Broomfield, Colorado, a Denver suburb, is the owner of this statue. In an interview conducted in Spanish with CNA she called the experience “inexplicable…”
