What happens when the president of the United States appears more willing to offer economic incentives to an invading nation than to guarantee the security of the nation being invaded? For nearly five years, the world has watched Russia wage…
The medieval world had its own ‘deepfakes’ – church officials cited a fake imperial decree for centuries
With deepfakes on the rise, forgery and deception are often viewed as distinctly modern problems – a new era of misinformation made possible by artificial intelligence. One of the first alarming cases occurred at the start of the war in…
Vatican’s ‘Foreign Minister’ tells Moscow to end the war in Ukraine
The Vatican’s foreign minister has told Russian officials the bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine must end – and that it can’t be resolved through military means.
As Russia Strikes Ukrainian Churches, Worship Goes On
During Moscow’s invasion in 2014, Oleksandr Pavenko, pastor of Transfiguration Church in Slovyansk, Ukraine, lost two of his sons—both of them also pastors. Kremlin-backed separatists stormed his church and abducted his sons and two church deacons, then tortured and killed the four…
What Putin’s Altar Boy offers American Christians
Juha Meriläinen, church historian at the University of Helsinki, has written a forthcoming book titled Putin’s Altar Boy. In it, he sounds a warning about the dangers of a church under the influence of the state. Patriarch Kiril, the head…
Humanitarian Impact of Attacks on Ukraine’s Energy Infrastructure
Attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have significantly deepened humanitarian instability, particularly affecting vulnerable populations. In January, the situation became critical in the Odesa region, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, and Zaporizhzhia, where entire cities were left without electricity following large-scale strikes.
Pope criticizes US bid to ‘break apart’ US-Europe alliance, insists on Europe role in Ukraine peace
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Pope Leo XIV insisted Tuesday that Europe must have a role in any Ukraine peace deal and criticized what he said was the Trump administration’s effort to “break apart” the long-standing U.S.-European alliance.
A Ukrainian Seminary’s Resilience
During my time as a college history professor, I taught a required course on Western civilization. Like many faculty peers, I tried different ways to motivate business and premed majors to take it seriously.
Faith communities called to help rescue abducted Ukrainian children
People and institutions of faith are needed in the effort to rescue Ukrainian children forcibly taken by invading Russian forces from their homes and families, child advocates say. “Religious groups need to understand their power and to know the significant…
Ukrainian Catholics in New York find hope in solidarity with their war-torn homeland
The whispered prayers for help from mothers clutching children in Ukraine amid the boom of Russian artillery are echoed here in the United States, thousands of miles from the war-torn region, by those who still feel deeply for their homeland.
These Russian clergy who said ‘no’ to Putin’s war in Ukraine are paying a price
In February 2022, as Russian tanks rolled across the Ukrainian border, a small group of Russian Orthodox Christian clergy did something extraordinary. They published an open letter calling for peace and an immediate ceasefire. Within days, nearly 300 clergy had…
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy meets with Pope Leo XIV. Both propose the Vatican as site for peace talks
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday and thanked him for the Vatican’s efforts to help return children taken by Russia. Both he and Leo suggested the Vatican could host peace talks to end the war.