The Dispatch: More from CWR...

Extra, extra! News and tidings, March 2, 2022

Here are some articles that caught our attention this past week.*

March 2, 2022 CWR Staff The Dispatch 2 Print

(Image: Elijah O'Donell @elijahsad | Unsplash.com)

Religious implications: “There are at least three clearly religious dimensions to this conflict that, so far, have largely been overlooked in most analysis.” With war in Ukraine, the global religious landscape is destined to shift (Crux Now)

Women’s Health Protection Act: The legislation would outlaw abortion restrictions up until birth; Casey backed it as recently as two years ago. Catholic ‘Pro-Life’ Democrat Sen. Casey Goes to Bat For Extreme Pro-Abortion Bill (National Catholic Register)

A breath of fresh air: “’Effective March 2nd, the wearing of a mask by an adult or children in all Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York will be recommended but NOT REQUIRED,’” said Michael J. Deegan, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of New York.” Catholic school mask mandate will be lifted, Archdiocese of New York says (Staten Island Live)

Ukrainian and Russian Blood: “Our conflict is not with the Russian people.” Ukraine, the Political and the Personal (The Catholic Thing)

We are falling—or rather, being driven—into structural information traps: As Russia wages war on its neighbor, Western observers fall into familiar patterns of thought, with potentially disastrous results. How Not To Think About Ukraine (The American Conservative)

Views from Moscow: “‘If Ukraine does not survive, the United Nations will not survive. Have no illusions,'” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya.” Isolated Russia Defends Ukraine War at UN (The Moscow Times).

Unseen Middle-earth art: The Tolkien estate website has been relaunched with new material, including sections on Tolkien’s calligraphy and a timeline of his life. Unseen JRR Tolkien paintings, photographs and video clips released (The Guardian)

The core problem with contemporary bioethics: “In our current episode of let’s-allow-baby-killing, an Australian bioethicist named Walter Veit comes to the defense of infanticide proponents who claimed there is no moral difference between late term fetuses and newborn babies.” Bioethicist Asks, ‘Does Birth Matter?’ Answers, ‘No’ (National Review)

History of fasting: “The very first Commandment of God to Adam and Eve was one of fasting from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” History of Lenten Fasting: How to Observe the Traditional Lenten Fast (A Catholic Life Blogspot)

Fat Tuesday, Fast Wednesday: Ash Wednesday “is a day of fasting, as opposed to a day of feasting.”  Why isn’t Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation? (Aleteia)

In the name of the Father . . . : “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father” (Matthew 10:32-33). A Public Witness: The Sign of the Cross (Integrated Catholic Life)

Faith and reason: “It is our hope that these biographies will be useful to teachers, students, and the general public.” Important Catholic Scientists of the Past (Society of Catholic Scientists)

(*It should not have to be said, but it has to be said, that the posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of said news item or essay. The editors of CWR, however, read a range of material, including countless pieces with which we disagree, or we question, or which we even find ludicrous and troubling.)

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No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis greets Russian Orthodox metropolitan after audience

May 3, 2023 Catholic News Agency 2
Metropolitan Anthony, chairman for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, greets Pope Francis after his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on May 3, 2023 / Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, May 3, 2023 / 06:15 am (CNA).

Pope Francis greeted the chairman for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church after his weekly public audience on Wednesday.

The brief encounter in St. Peter’s Square with Metropolitan Anthony comes amid heightened scrutiny of diplomatic signals involving the Holy See’s desire to broker a peaceful settlement to the ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

In his press conference Sunday on his flight back to Rome from Budapest, Pope Francis told reporters that the Holy See is involved in a secret peace mission to end the conflict. Both Ukrainian and Russian officials were quick to deny that negotiations were taking place, but a close papal aide confirmed the pope’s statement in an interview with an Italian news outlet published Wednesday.

In the livestream video of the May 3 general audience, Metropolitan Anthony, 38, could be seen approaching the pope and shaking his hand. Francis kissed the bishop’s pectoral cross. The two spoke for just under one minute and exchanged small gifts.

Pope Francis has wanted to meet with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. A planned meeting between the two leaders in Jerusalem last summer, which would have taken place during a trip to Lebanon, was canceled.

On the second day of his trip to Budapest, Hungary, April 28-30, the pope had a private meeting with Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop Hilarion. During his in-flight press conference April 30, the pope commented on meeting Hilarion, saying he is someone “for whom I have much respect, and we have always had a good relationship.”

“Hilarion is an intelligent person with whom one can talk, and such relationships must be maintained, because if we talk about ecumenism, we can then say ‘I like this, but I don’t like that …’ We must extend our hand towards everyone, and also accept the extended hand of others,” he said, according to a Vatican transcript of the press conference. The metropolitan was also present at Francis’ Sunday Mass in Budapest.

Metropolitan Anthony, chairman for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, walks with Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, regent of the Pontifical House, in St. Peter's Square on May 3, 2023. The metropolitan had a brief exchange with Pope Francis after the pope's general audience on May 3, amid heightened scrutiny of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Russia. Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Metropolitan Anthony, chairman for external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, walks with Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, regent of the Pontifical House, in St. Peter’s Square on May 3, 2023. The metropolitan had a brief exchange with Pope Francis after the pope’s general audience on May 3, amid heightened scrutiny of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Russia. Daniel Ibañez/CNA

Pope Francis also said during the in-flight press conference that he has only spoken once with Kirill since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The two spoke, he said, for 40 minutes over a Zoom video call.

He also said that Metropolitan Anthony, who replaced Hilarion as chairman for external church relations, “comes to see me.”

“He is a bishop who was a pastor in Rome and knows the situation well, and through him I am in contact with Kirill,” he added.

Anthony was a clergyman in Rome from 2011-2019.

Responding to the pope’s comments about secret talks, an official in the Ukrainian presidential office told CNN on May 1 that he was “not aware” of a peace mission. “If there are talks, they are taking place without our knowledge,” he said, according to CNN.

According to TASS news agency, a spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said Tuesday that Russia also “has no knowledge” of this mission.

However, economist Stefano Zamagni, until recently the president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, has reportedly confirmed the veracity of Pope Francis’ comments about a peace mission.

Zamagni, thought to be a close advisor to Pope Francis, was quoted in the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano on May 3 saying, “the pope has been working continuously for peace for more than eight months. But it’s no surprise: It is obvious that both the Kremlin and Kyiv deny it because there is still no official document.”

The economist said the Vatican is carrying forward a seven-point plan for the peace process he outlined last September.

[…]

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis receives Ukraine’s new Vatican ambassador

April 7, 2022 Catholic News Agency 2
Pope Francis received Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, on April 7, 2022 / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Apr 7, 2022 / 07:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday received the new Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash.

Yurash, 53, arrived in Rome in March. He presented his credential letters to Pope Francis at the Vatican on April 7. Their meeting also included the exchanging of gifts.

Ukraine's ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, presents Pope Francis with gifts on April 7, 2022. Vatican Media
Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, presents Pope Francis with gifts on April 7, 2022. Vatican Media

The presentation is done by every diplomat to the Holy See at the beginning of his or her service.

The ambassador wrote on Twitter that it was an “incredible honor and privilege” to present his credentials to Pope Francis. He also said he had an “inspiring and extremely motivating conversation” with Francis and with Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The Holy See, Yurash said, is a sincere partner of Ukraine, “doing everything possible to stop the war.”

Yurash took his post just weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since his arrival, he has participated in Catholic liturgies, spoken about the war, given interviews to media, and held meetings with other diplomats and Vatican officials.

The Ukrainian ambassador was also present in St. Peter’s Basilica for Pope Francis’ consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25.

Yurash’s most recent post, held from 2020-2022, was in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, where he was head of the division for religions, guarantee of the citizens’ right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

The ambassador, who is married with three children, has a degree in journalism and a doctorate in political science. He worked in the communications office of the National University of Lviv, where he also taught classes in the radio and television department.

From 2014-2020, he was vice director and then director of the department for religions and nationalities in Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.

Ukraine’s former Vatican ambassador was Tetyana Yizhevska. She held the post since 2007. The Ukrainian Embassy to the Holy See opened in 2000.

[…]

2 Comments

  1. You missed Fr. Raymond de Souza’s excellent Mar. 1 article – Why did Pope Francis Finally Get Around to Calling Out Russian Aggression?

    Reply

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