Pope calls for “Easter truce” in Ukraine (CNA) Pope Francis said on Palm Sunday 2022 that nothing is impossible for God, who has the power to end the war in Ukraine, even if it looks like the end is not near. He also urged the laying down of weapons for a permanent “Easter truce.” At the end of Mass in St. Peter’s Square on April 10, the pope said: “Nothing is impossible for God. He can even bring an end to a war whose end is not in sight, a war that daily places before our eyes heinous massacres and atrocious cruelty committed against defenseless civilians. Let us pray about this…”
Ukrainian Catholic leader prays at mass graves in Bucha (CNA) The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church prayed on Thursday at the site of a mass grave in the recently liberated city of Bucha. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk described his visit to the site around 15 miles northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in his daily video message on April 8. “In order to see, yesterday I personally had the opportunity to go to the tragically infamous town of Bucha, which is an open wound on the body of Ukraine,” he said…
Livestream equipment, donations stolen from California parish (Angelus News) Thieves tried to desecrate a tabernacle and got away with an estimated $150,000 in technology used to livestream services from St. Monica Church in Santa Monica. Surveillance video showed three people inside the church with flashlights removing the church’s audiovisual equipment at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 24. They also removed four candle boxes with donations, and tried unsuccessfully to pry open the church’s tabernacle with consecrated hosts inside…
New U.S. ambassador to Holy See presents credentials to pope (Vatican News) The new U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Joseph Simon Donnelly, of Indiana, presented his credential letters to Pope Francis on Monday morning in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. The Ambassador’s main task will be to liaise between the Holy See and the U.S. Government. Diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the United States of America were established between Pope St. John Paul II and U.S. President Ronald Reagan on 10 January, 1984…
Ukrainian nuns open doors to displaced (AP) Beneath the ancient beech forests of the Carpathian Mountains, a quiet monastery in the western Ukrainian village of Hoshiv has transformed itself into a giant playground for a dozen children who’ve been displaced by the war with their families. Nuns at the Greek Catholic Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family, 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Lviv, have granted refuge to some 40 people fleeing fighting with Russian forces in eastern and central Ukraine…
How COVID changed the clergy in New York (The New York Times) The absence took a deep physical, spiritual and emotional toll — not only on the faithful but also on clergy members who struggled to serve worshipers from afar. Congregants’ needs were unending. The ability of clergy to respond was at times limited by disease, distance and the number of hours in a day. Priests, rabbis, imams and ministers leaned on the teachings of their faiths to comfort their flocks, and themselves. They also employed modern technology, including Facebook Live and Zoom, to pray with congregants safely…
