Tag: Christianity

Belgrade, February 18, 2025

Photo: architectureguru.ru     

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić honored prominent individuals, organizations and institutions on February 16, in honor of Serbian Statehood Day, which was celebrated the day before. Among the honorees was Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery.

One of Serbia’s most prestigious awards, the Sretenje Order III Class, was presented for the monastery’s “exceptional and active contribution to strengthening spiritual and friendly relations between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church and between the two peoples,” the Serbian Orthodox Church reports.

The order was received by Sretensky’s Hieromonk Ignaty (Shestakov).

“This is a pleasant surprise and a great honor for us,” Fr. Ignaty said.

“Right now there are many Serbs studying in Russia, which has never happened before, and many of them come to Sretensky Monastery, and we talk there, we serve Liturgies, molebens, and try to gather them together and help them become closer friends,” he added.

St. Petka Monastery in Izvor, Serbia, and Novo Hopovo Monastery on the Fruška Gora Mountain were also awarded the Sretenje Order II Class.

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As workers at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels set up for OneLife LA – an annual pro-life rally that had been moved from downtown Los Angeles due to wildfire smoke — volunteers wheeled in the 300-pound brass tabernacle that firefighters had recovered a week earlier from the ashes of Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades.

No announcement had been made that the undamaged tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament inside would be at OneLife LA, but those present recognized it from a story that has gone around the world via Catholic media. As soon as it entered the sanctuary, people dropped to their knees to venerate what has become a profound sign of God’s presence amid devastating loss.

On Feb. 18, the Archdiocese of LA’s Digital Team released a short documentary looking at the damage inside the destroyed church with Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Brian Nassour, who rescued the tabernacle. He was accompanied by Captain Frank V. Lima, who is both general secretary and treasurer of the International Association of Fire Fighters, and a former Pacific Palisades firefighter who had often worshiped at Corpus Christi.

Nassour again recounted how his crew had returned at dawn from a long night of fighting fires. It had been four days since a Jan. 7 fire had destroyed Corpus Christi, leaving a twisted steel frame that stood precariously in a 40-mph wind. But that morning Nassour made an impromptu decision to search the ruins for sacred objects.

As he stood in what had been the church entrance, he saw beyond enormous piles of charred wreckage to the stone high altar and the brass tabernacle atop it.

“It was just glistening,” he said.

Another firefighter helped him lug the tabernacle to a department pickup truck, while a third monitored the damaged steel beams amid the howling wind.

At any sign of collapse, Nassour told the others, “we’re dropping this, we’re running out.”

Inside the fire station, awed firefighters wanted to inspect the tabernacle, but Nassour gave strict orders that, because of its sacred contents, no one was to touch it until someone from the archdiocese came to claim it.

“At that point, with four days of not sleeping, guys were beat down, guys were extremely tired,” Nassour said of his crew. But although he told them to get some rest, “believe it or not, all six guys jumped in there without hesitation” to search for more sacred objects.

Digging on their hands and knees in the debris, they found just a few. Sometimes they saw a liturgical book but “every time we picked one up and thought we had it, it fell through our hands because it was just ash,” Nassour said.

The twisted steel girders indicated that the temperature inside Corpus Christi had been at least 1,000 degrees. Its brick walls had created an oven, capturing the heat. Cement had exploded, the roof melted. All but a few panes of the clear glass front wall had shattered. But the 14 stained-glass windows depicting the stations of the cross were virtually unscathed.

Neither Nassour nor Lima understand why.

“The fact that those didn’t break from the heat or from a beam falling … we thought it truly a miracle. How can that happen?” said Lima, who visited the ruined church and briefly prayed there with Ed Kelly, the Boston-based general president of the International Association of Firefighters. “That glass should have been breaking out like the whole front of the church is broken out.”

For the firefighters, the joy of the recovered tabernacle has been an antidote to the unspeakable sadness and stress of their labors as thousands of homes burned.

“What they did that day, it brought hope to a big community, even outside the Catholic community,” Lima said.

After seeing that the tabernacle and the few other salvageable items were returned to Msgr. Liam Kidney, pastor of Corpus Christi, the Palisades firefighters made it their mission to search other sacred sites.

“Every guy was like, ‘Hey we need to find other places of worship around here to make sure that we return everything back to where it should be — the synagogue, the Presbyterian church, the Methodist church that burned down,” Nassour said.

With the devil’s brew of flames, hurricane force winds, blinding smoke, and fallen electrical lines, Lima called it a miracle that no firefighters died, and that other deaths have been relatively few. He attributes that to both prayer and well-trained firefighters.

Under the conditions, “the loss of life should have been in the thousands,” Lima said. “It’s a couple of dozen, which is horrible. But 28 compared to, say, 2,800 was due to the phenomenal work of our members.”

After his role in saving the tabernacle became public, Nassour was inundated with expressions of thanks and prayers for his safety, for which he is grateful. It took a couple of weeks to understand the ramifications of the rescue of the tabernacle, that the Church views it not as saving a treasured object, but as protecting Christ himself.

The gratitude “has been wonderful, but at the same time, I didn’t do it for this. I did it for everybody,” he said. “We chose this profession because we want to help.”

He prays daily with his wife and children, giving thanks for all that they have.

“My dad always told me, ‘Just think that you’re never alone,’ ” he said. “If your back is against the wall right now, there’s always someone there who is bigger than us that’s going to be pushing us and motivating us to be able to get through these tough times.”

Putna, Suceava County, Romania, February 18, 2025

​Photo: Putna Monastery (YouTube)     

Whenever the thoughts come rushing in, we must resort to prayer, lest we lose ourselves, the abbot of the Romanian Orthodox Church’s famous Putna Monastery preached on Sunday, reflecting on the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

Abbot Archimandrite Melchisedec (Velnic) referred to the verse Blessed shall he be who shall seize and dash thine infants against the rock (Ps. 136:9), which the Holy Fathers interpret as referring to sinful thoughts and movements of the heart that must be destroyed at first appearance.

These “infants” must be broken upon the rock of Christ, “and these sinful thoughts must be removed through the Jesus Prayer and through all means of Divine grace,” Fr. Melchisedec taught, reports the Basilica News Agency.

Referring further to Psalm 136, By the Rivers of Babylon, which was sung for the first time this year at Matins for the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, Abbot Melchisedec noted that “It’s a special song of the Psalmist David, which reminds us of the Jewish people who, distant from God, remember the time when they were close to Him. They ask themselves how they will continue to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land.”

The abbot explained that a Christian’s journey is like living in a paradisiacal garden—those who choose to remain there develop, through virtuous living, an expansive heart that becomes a wellspring of love and goodness. However, he warned that leaving this garden leads to exile in a foreign land. Like the Prodigal Son who wandered far from home, those who stray find their souls marked by unnatural laws—the inevitable result of pursuing sin.

“Being in a foreign land, how can you sing the Lord’s song? You can’t, because all these things confine you, even crush you spiritually,” Fr. Melchisedec warned.

***

Putna Monastery. Photo: putna.ro     

Archimandrite Melchisedec was born in 1961 in Ceplenița commune, Iași County, receiving the Baptismal name Mihai.

He attended the Theological Seminary at Neamț Monastery from 1979-1984, and the University-level Theological Institute in Bucharest between 1985-1989.

After completing his studies, he embraced the monastic life, going through various stages of ascetic struggles.

He was received at Putna Monastery as a novice on July 1, 1989, and was tonsured a monk on September 7 of that year. Three days later, he was ordained a hierodeacon.

On August 15, 1990, he was ordained a hieromonk.

On December 7, 1992, he was elected abbot of Putna Monastery.

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In 1868, Priest Dorimedont Protopopov was sent to the Tungus people on account of his knowledge of the Yakut language and wide popularity among the natives. Since there were no chapels or churches on their territory, they themselves sent messengers on reindeer for Fr. Dorimedont to come to one of the rivers where they gathered to worship.

There lived a merchant named Kirill Sukhanov among the Tungus and the Buryats in the Nerchinsk district. He actively traded with the natives and simultaneously preached the Word of God to them. At the insistence of His Eminence Innocent, he was ordained and devoted his life entirely to missionary work. The Tungus people baptized by him adopted the surname Sukhanov. Archpriest Kirill taught them to lead a settled way of life in small camps, and over time they became Russian in their lifestyle and speech.

The most difficult journeys of 1878–1879 fell to the lot of Fr. Grigory Prelovsky, who traveled for more than seven months through uninhabited deserts at a distance of 3047 miles. From the very beginning he was beset by continuous sorrows, hardships and dangers. They rode out of Aldan on reindeer, which was not easy even for experienced reindeer herders, but for an inexperienced and tall person like Fr. Grigory it was a nightmare. But soon the deep snow deprived him of this opportunity too—the reindeer were drowning in the snow, and there was nothing left but to ski.

The bitter cold and penetrating winds took away the remainder of the travelers’ energy. Moving from golets (the woodless top of a mountain in Siberia) to golets, from river to river for nineteen days, they barely reached the Yablonovy Ridge that separated the Amur tributaries from the Lena ones, and they did not encounter a single dwelling or trace of human habitation along the way. The lack of hot food except tea and dry bread exhausted Fr. Grigory, and his eyes were inflamed because of the bright light and the refraction of the sunlight onto the mountain tops and valleys. The bitter chill made his teeth and head ache, and his ears were pulsating. Being in a hopeless situation, the priest found a warm welcome at the Kuldzin gold mines, and since it was the first week of Lent, he confessed and gave Communion to the miners. Not only did they feed Fr. Grigory and warm him up, but they also gave him food supplies for the journey back, which he needed very much.

On the way home, he met almost no Tungus people, and because of the flooding of the mountain rivers the travelers had to wade knee-deep through water in winter clothes.

One day, during a dangerous crossing by reindeer of the fast-flowing Dzhompula River, a church server had an accident. The reindeer couldn’t hold out, rose to the surface and threw off the rider. He began to sink, but, fortunately, a small tree close by allowed him to stay on the surface of the water for a while, until the drivers approached and, risking their lives, saved him from imminent death. Soaked from head to toe and chilled to the bone, he could neither walk nor mount the reindeer.

Despite all the difficulties and obstacles, the missionaries returned to Yakutsk seven months later. Considering the hardships incurred, this travelling priest did not achieve much; he confessed and gave Communion to 245 people, baptized forty-six babies, performed twelve weddings and thirteen funeral services. And it was all because the Tungus people were migrating to the border of the Primorsky territory towards Zelenaya Mountain, where Fr. Grigory could not come because he had received an order from the Church authorities to return.

In 1878, the travelling Priest Vasily Nikitin travelled down the Lena River in a kayuk (a small flat-bottom river boat with two oars) and encountered obstacles in the form of strong contrary winds. Soon the river was covered with ice, and the kayuk ended up on an uninhabited island of the river. But the Tungus people helped the priest and his companions get out of there. In winter, the priest traveled along the shores of the Arctic Ocean from Bykov to the Olenyok River, visited the Yakuts, the Tungus people, and the Yukaghirs, performed the necessary services of need, and returned to Yakutsk.

A vivid example of missionary activity was the journey of Hieromonk Benedict to the Chukchi, from which he returned in 1889. During the journey Fr. Benedict had to stay on St. Lawrence Island (south of the Bering Strait) and, lacking an interpreter and a guide, as well as funds for the journey back, he stayed with agents of American trading companies.

At the first opportunity he went to the Chukchi camps, and after living in them for a month, had to return to the Americans. Then, with passing traders on dogs, he reached the mouth of the Anadyr River and lived at Cape Chaplin in Chukotka for a month, waiting for the Chukchi who had gone fishing. Having reached the mouth of the Anadyr River from Cape Chaplin, Hieromonk Benedict stayed with the Cossacks, waiting for a favorable moment, until a merchant on a sled came from the village of Markovo to buy bread. Fr. Benedict stayed in Markovo until winter, as the journey was even more unbearable in summer. Swarms of mosquitoes and various insects, scorching hot sun and prolonged rains made him seek shelter in unsightly Yakut yurts scattered at great distances from each other. His nutrition consisted of only dry bread and tea, the water for which was taken from ponds. There were swarms of jumping insects in the yurts, which made the body burn.

Icon of St. Joasaph (Bolotov) It’s easy to read about it, but it’s hard to experience it. Back at the turn of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, the mission of the travelling clergy suffered serious losses and sorrows. The priests performed true feats without pride or vanity, devoting their lives to converting thousands of natives to the faith of Christ. The history of the spiritual mission on Kodiak Island shows how necessary chapels and churches were in places where native peoples lived, and how much safer and more fruitful the ministry of the local clergy was, as they did not have to search for nomads through the icy deserts.

In 1793, the Kodiak Spiritual Mission in Alaska was established under the leadership of Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov), initiated by an industrialist named Grigory Shelekhov from the town of Rylsk in the Kursk province. He pledged to support both the church and the missionaries at the expense of his industrial company. The first missionaries in North America were eight monks of Valaam Monastery: the head of the mission, Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov), the future Bishop of Kodiak; Hieromonks Juvenaly, Makary and Athanasius; Hierodeacons Stephen and Nektary; and Monks Herman and Joasaph. What were the destinies of these heroes?

Encouraged by the success of his preaching and having baptized over 700 pagans in Kenai Peninsula, Hieromonk Juvenaly was brutally murdered by savages. That’s how they recalled this holy preacher:

“He tried to convert us to his God, but we didn’t want to abandon our polygamy and tied him to a tree. But he, already dead, rose three times and began to convince us again until we gave him to our neighbors to eat him.”

In 1797, during a severe storm in the ocean, the ship Felix sank, with all its passengers perishing. On board the ship were the head of the American Mission, Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov), Hieromonk Makary, the enlightener of the Aleuts, and Hierodeacon Stephen, who had been consecrated Bishop of Kodiak Island in Irkutsk.

In 1806, Hierodeacon Nektary died at the Holy Trinity Monastery in the town of Kirensk of the Irkutsk province. Monk Joasaph reposed in 1823.

Of all the members of the Kodiak Spiritual Mission, only Hieromonk Athanasius and Monk Herman survived. Monk Herman did not leave the place of his ministry, practiced fervent prayer, ran a homestead, and taught literacy and hard work to Aleut orphans.

In 1801, Herman became the head of the Mission, and in search of solitary prayer, moved to the deserted Spruce Island, naming his monastery New Valaam, where he reposed in 1837. St. Herman of Alaska was glorified in a joint canonization by the Orthodox Church of American and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on August 9, 1970.

This is what Orthodox “field mission” was like in the past.

The U.K. government is “choosing criminalization over compassion and protection” with its new asylum and immigration bill, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

The Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill is currently making its way through the U.K. Parliament and passed its second reading on Feb. 10. It comes as asylum and immigration have been highlighted as key priorities by both the current Labor government, elected in July 2024, and the previous Conservative government.

Government statistics showed that, in 2024, 36,816 migrants arrived in the U.K. on 695 small boats, compared with 2018 when 300 people arrived on boats. Both Labor and Conservative administrations have advocated stringent measures to counter immigration.

The new bill stipulates automatic refusal of U.K. citizenship to illegal immigrants to the U.K., no matter how much time has elapsed.

The new law would make it illegal to enter the U.K. without approval, even though the U.K. signed on to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, which states that neither asylum seekers nor refugees can be penalized for entering illegally.

Bishop Paul McAleenan, lead bishop for Migrants and Refugees, criticized the government for imposing “harsher measures” on those seeking asylum and for failing to provide safe and legal routes for those who need them.

“This bill seems to favor criminalization over compassion and protection,” McAleenan told CNA. “The new government has done little to address the lack of safe and legal routes — genuine alternatives remain unavailable. Instead, the government has proposed even harsher measures, such as expansion of detention powers and reduced protection for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery.”

Introducing the bill, the government said it was “inspired by the approach taken to counter terrorism,” adding: “The Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill will strengthen the U.K.’s response to border security threats.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that people are smuggling gangs into the U.K. and this bill will give police more power to deal with the problem. Cooper told the BBC: “The gangs have been allowed to take hold for six years.” However, McAleenan commented that many coming to the U.K. have legitimate reasons for seeking asylum.

“It is difficult to see how measures that criminalize asylum seekers will achieve these aims,” he said. “A distinction must be made between victims and those who profit from their vulnerability.”

He added that “afflicted and persecuted” people affected by “wars, conflicts, and other factors” have no choice but “to risk dangerous journeys.”

Referring to the words of Pope Francis regarding migrants, McAleenan called on the government to adopt a “new approach.”

“I urge the government to reconsider its approach and instead focus on addressing the real drivers of forced migration, ensuring access to safe routes and upholding the fundamental principles of compassion,” he said, adding: “The words of Pope Francis are perpetual: ‘Every migrant has a name, a face, and a story.’”

U.K. Catholic social justice charity Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS UK) was also critical of the government bill for what it says is “punishing” refugees.

JRS UK senior policy officer Sophie Cartwright told CNA: “For too long, our asylum system has treated people seeking sanctuary with hostility. Recent governments have doubled down on making it difficult for refugees to reach the U.K. and punishing them for traveling in the only way available.”

Cartwright added: “We need to build bridges for people seeking sanctuary and an asylum system that treats them with dignity … This government must have the courage to build a fair and humane alternative.”

Liam Allmark, acting deputy director of JRS UK, said the bill “misses a vital opportunity,” adding: “We should be focused on making it safer and easier for refugees to find protection rather than building a fortress.”

He also pointed out that “this jubilee year, Pope Francis has called us to offer welcome and hope for refugees and other displaced people.”

“With the help of our supporters, JRS UK will continue advocating for just policies that protect the lives and dignity of all those who are forced to flee,” he said.

After passing its second reading, the next stage for the bill will be a public bill committee, which will meet on Feb. 27 and will hear written evidence submissions

If the late Bishop David O’Connell had anything to say to his former parishioners at a recent Sunday Mass at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in South LA, the words were on the white posterboards held by several parishioners during the entrance procession.

“Help me love my family more and more,” read one of the signs in Spanish. “Help me to follow you more closely.”

“Make yourself present in me, stay with me,” read another. “Come into my heart, come today into my life.”

Anyone who’d been a parishioner of O’Connell’s over the years could recognize the one-line prayers. He would teach them in his homilies and contemplative prayer sessions, and repeated them enough that they still stuck.

At the standing-room only noon Mass on Sunday, Feb. 9, those signs were a poignant reminder of the deep mark that O’Connell left on the people of St. Frances, now a heavily Latino parish but still home to several longtime Black parishioners.

It was here that O’Connell burnished his reputation as a bridge-building inner-city pastor from 1988 to 2003, bringing police, activists, and other faith leaders together to help rebuild and unite a community torn apart by the LA Riots.

And it was here that, two years after his death, parishioners welcomed Archbishop José H. Gomez for the dedication of a new memorial garden in O’Connell’s honor. Administrator Father Christopher Felix envisions the space, located between the church and a parish office building, as a place anyone can visit to pray, relax, meditate, or even share a meal.

“We wanted to dedicate this area to him for what he’s done to this community, and the healing that we can receive from him going forward,” said Felix.

Since arriving at St. Frances last summer, Felix said he’s noticed that parishioners are still suffering from O’Connell’s sudden death in February 2023 — including those who knew him from a brief second stint in 2015 at the parish before Pope Francis named him a bishop.  

“I don’t think there’s been closure for them,” said Felix. “So I see this garden as a place where they can heal, a place where they can feel close to him again and feel his love.”

Longtime parishioners Charles Nall and his adult son, Jason, are among those still feeling the absence of “Father Dave.” As soon as the young Irish priest arrived at St. Frances in 1988, he found a barber — and a friend.

“I did his hair for 28 years,” said Charles. “I knew him very closely. We could talk about things, he helped me in a lot of things.”

As a youth figuring out life during those years, Jason found in O’Connell an easy person to talk to, whether about sports or cracking jokes.

“He was always a person you could go to, no matter what you were going through, no matter how egregious the sin was,” said Jason with a laugh. “He always found a way first to show you grace, and to give you the spiritual way out of it. And I always appreciated it.”

Joining Archbishop Gomez at the special noon Mass was Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes, O’Connell’s successor as the regional bishop of the Archdiocese of LA’s San Gabriel Pastoral Region. In his homily, Nunes compared the amazement of the disciples at Jesus’ miraculous catch of fish in the Sunday Gospel to the kind of “greatness” that O’Connell inspired in others.

“As the person who has followed Bishop O’Connell, I know what it is like to be in the presence of greatness,” said Nunes, who preached in both Spanish and English. “His generosity, his kindness, his love … it’s a little difficult to measure up to him, but this experience has helped me a lot.”

After the Mass, hundreds gathered to witness Archbishop Gomez’s blessing of the space, marked by a poster collage of photos of O’Connell. So far, grass and a few flower beds have been installed. In the coming weeks, benches and lights will be added, a replica statue of Our Lady of Lourdes will arrive, and a water fountain donated by a parishioner at American Martyrs Church in Manhattan Beach will be installed.

After being ordained a priest in 2014 and assigned to a parish in San Gabriel, Felix got to know O’Connell during his first years as a bishop in the region. He stressed that the garden is meant as a place for everybody, including visitors from around the vast archdiocese.

“He was here for everybody… and I think that’s what he left here: his love for everybody,” said Felix. “No matter what, he took the time to be with the people.”

Kim Collins was among those marveling at the garden that Sunday. A former Baptist who converted thanks to her husband, a member of St. Frances, she remembered peeking inside the church during a visit more than 30 years ago. Accustomed to her Baptist church’s strict dress code, she was reluctant to go inside wearing shorts, until she caught the eye of O’Connell, who happened to be inside the empty church.

“Come on in, everyone’s welcome,” O’Connell told her.

Collins credits that encounter with helping convince her to become Catholic.

“That’s how he was, he welcomed everybody. I miss him, we miss him,” said Collins, who went on to serve as president of St. Frances’ women’s council for more than 20 years. “That’s going to stay with me forever.”

Pope Francis is suffering from a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract,” test results revealed Feb. 17, “which required a further modification of his therapy,” a Vatican medical bulletin said.

“All the tests performed to date indicate a complex clinical picture that will require an appropriate hospital stay,” said the bulletin.

The 88-year-old pope was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital Feb. 14 after more than a week of suffering from bronchitis and difficulty breathing. He was diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection.

Polymicrobial means multiple pathogens are involved.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, had told reporters earlier Feb. 17 that the pope slept well, woke up and had breakfast and was reading newspapers and continuing his therapy. He was in a good mood, Bruni said.

As of Feb. 17 there was no information on when the pope would be released from the hospital, although his weekly general audience Feb. 19 was canceled. The Vatican has not said what would happen with the Mass and the ordination of permanent deacons the pope was scheduled to preside over Feb. 23 as part of the Jubilee of Deacons. The Prefecture of the Papal Household, which organizes many of the pope’s meetings, reportedly canceled appointments scheduled through Feb. 22.

Italian newspapers reported Feb. 17 that Pope Francis had an aide phone Holy Family Parish in Gaza his first two nights in the hospital to continue to check on the priests, religious and hundreds of families taking shelter there. The pope has been calling the parish every evening for months.

“The pope called us Friday and Saturday; he was in a good mood, his voice a little tired, but he wanted to know how we were,” said an unnamed official at the parish who spoke to the Italian TGcom24 television station. “An aide handed him the phone and he was able to talk to us.”

However, the official said, on Feb. 16 “he rested, and we knew he wouldn’t call.”

The pope, who underwent surgery in 1957 to remove part of one of his lungs after suffering a severe respiratory infection, has been susceptible to colds and bouts of bronchitis.

Beginning with his weekly general audience Feb. 5, Pope Francis had an aide read the bulk of his homilies and prepared speeches at public Masses and audiences.

“It is difficult for me to speak,” he explained to visitors at the audience Feb. 5 before handing off his text.

At Mass Feb. 9 for the Jubilee of the Armed Services, Police and Security Personnel, he apologized, saying he was having “difficulty breathing.”

At his general audience Feb. 12, he apologized for not delivering the main talk himself, saying it was “because I still can’t with my bronchitis. I hope next time I can.”

But on all those public occasions, he took the microphone to urge prayers for peace and to give his blessing.

Jerusalem, February 17, 2025

Photo: jerusalem-patriarchate.info     

His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem and the heads of other churches in the Holy Land have issued another statement concerning the humanitarian needs in Gaza.

The text expresses sorrow over the ongoing crisis in Gaza, highlighting the loss of innocent lives and destruction of communities. It specifically emphasizes concerns about mass displacement, arguing that Gazans should not be forced from their ancestral lands and homes.

Pat. Theophilos and the other leaders support the positions of King Abdullah II and President El-Sisi in opposing displacement of Gazans, calling for the release of all captives and urging immediate humanitarian access. It concludes with plea for peace that preserves human dignity and the rights of people to remain in their land.

The statement reads:

A HUMANITARIAN PLEA FROM THE CHURCHES OF JERUSALEM: DEFENDING THE DIGNITY AND PRESENCE OF THE PEOPLE OF GAZA

Jerusalem, the Holy Land

February 14, 2025

As custodians of the Christian faith and conscience in this sacred land, we raise our voices in sorrow and steadfast resolve in the face of the ongoing suffering in Gaza. The devastation that has unfolded before the eyes of the world is a profound moral and humanitarian tragedy. Thousands of innocent lives have been lost, and entire communities stand in ruin, with the most vulnerable—children, the elderly, and the sick—enduring unimaginable hardship.

Amid this anguish, we are compelled to speak against the grave threat of mass displacement, an injustice that strikes at the very heart of human dignity. The people of Gaza, families who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors, must not be forced into exile, stripped of whatever is left of their homes, their heritage, and their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity. As Christians, we cannot be indifferent to such suffering, for the Gospel commands us to uphold the dignity of every human being. The words of our Lord remind us: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed” (Isaiah 10:1-2).

In this critical moment, we acknowledge and support the position of His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, President El-Sisi of Egypt, and others, whose firm and principled stance have remained clear and unwavering in rejecting any attempt to uproot the people of Gaza from their land. Their relentless efforts to provide humanitarian aid, appeal to the world’s conscience, and insist on the protection of civilians exemplify leadership at its highest level of responsibility.

In this same spirit, we also call for the release of all captives from both sides so that they can be safely reunited with their families. We additionally appeal to all people of faith, to governments, and to the international community to act swiftly and decisively to halt this catastrophe. Let there be no justification for the uprooting of a people who have already suffered beyond measure. Let the sanctity of human life and the moral obligation to protect the defenseless outweigh the forces of destruction and despair. We call for an immediate unfettered humanitarian access to those in desperate need. To abandon them now would be to abandon our shared humanity.

As we lift our prayers for those in mourning, for the wounded, and for those who remain steadfast in the land of their forefathers, we remember the promise of Scripture: “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down” (Psalm 145:14). May the God of mercy strengthen the afflicted, soften the hearts of those who hold power, and bring forth a peace that upholds justice, preserves human dignity, and safeguards the presence of all people in the land to which they belong.

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A Catholic priest was killed in Myanmar on Friday, an incident that “deeply shocked and saddened” Cardinal Charles Maung Bo.

Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win from the Archdiocese of Mandalay in Upper Burma, was killed by a group of armed men on the evening of Feb. 14 in Kangyi Taw village of the Shwebo Township.

The 44-year-old was a priest at Our Lady of Lourdes’s Parish, and had been a priest for seven years. His body was found in a forest near the old town of Pyu in Kangyi Taw.

The local Christian community told media he was a very kind-hearted priest and a great missionary, and they are saddened by his death.

Kangyi Taw village is located on the border of Shwebo and Wetlet districts. In addition to the Christian church, Kangyi Taw village also has a Buddhist monastery.

In 2023, the military council burned down Kangyi Taw village and the 120-year-old Mae Taw Thakin Ma school in Chan village, a Catholic Christian village in Ye U Township.

According to a military council report the Telegram, Win was arrested by the KIA/PDPF in the village at around 6 pm on February 14 and then cut to pieces with a knife outside the village.

Christians make up about 6 percent of Myanmar’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population, but about 34 percent of Kachin’s estimated 1.7 million population.

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the Kachin People’s Defense Force (KPDF) have been operating in northern Myanmar for decades. Although a nominal peace was formed in 2008, the 2021 coup d’état ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi led to a renewal of the rebellion.

Bo, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar, said the Catholic Church was “deeply shocked and saddened by the news” of the murder.

“The Catholic Church throughout Myanmar mourns this loss together with Archbishop Marco Tin Win, the priests, the religious, the faithful of the Archdiocese of Mandalay and parents and relatives of Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win. May God the Father, the Lord of all life, comfort your mourning hearts and ours,” the cardinal said in a statement.

“May the blood and sacrifices of countless innocent people, along with Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win, serve as an offering to ending the violence that is occurring throughout the Nation. Learning from these heartbreaking experiences that we have encountered, may the fraternal spirit be awakened, and we earnestly appeal for an end to the violence,” he added.

“The wrongdoing committed against Father Donald Martin Ye Naing Win is not something that can be easily forgotten. Therefore, we urge those responsible to take appropriate action and ensure justice is served, so that such incidents do not occur again in the future,” Bo said.

Chernivtsi, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, February 17, 2025

Holy Spirit Cathedral in Chernivtsi. Photo: Facebook     

Ukrainian Orthodox Christians gathered on Sunday in the western Ukrainian Chernivtsi Province to bear witness to their Orthodox faith and their loyalty to the Church.

In the face of threats by the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” hundreds of Orthodox parishioners of the Holy Spirit Cathedral in the city of Chernivtsi voted to remain in the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the headship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

The meeting was broadcast on the cathedral’s Facebook page and reported on by the Union of Orthodox Journalists.

At the same time, the godless schismatics were meeting just behind the cathedral, planning to seize the cathedral and other churches. They concluded their meeting with calls for death to their fellow Ukrainians who remain faithful to Christ in His holy Church.

After the vote of the Orthodox parish community, His Eminence Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi stated that the final documents on the meeting results would be brought to the attention of the Chernivtsi Regional Military Administration, Security Service of Ukraine, and the police.

Met. Meletiy spoke to the provocations and propaganda surrounding the cathedral, noting that services are conducted there in Church Slavonic and Romanian, not Russian, as the ignorant claim. He also emphasized that the cathedral has no connection to Russia and that Patriarch Kirill is not commemorated in the services because they disagree with his stance on the war.

Churches in western Ukraine have been particularly under threat lately. Several parish communities have made Orthodox parishes in western Ukraine seek U.S. protection from religious persecutionParishioners of the Church of St. Basil in the village of Pidzaharychi in Bukovina appealed to U.S. government agencies about protecting their rights on January 30.

“>public appeals for help to the U.S. government, to Vice President Vance in particular, and last week, hundreds gathered in a Hundreds of Ukrainian Orthodox process for protection of churches in western Ukraine (+VIDEO)Hundreds of Orthodox Christians held a cross procession through the center of the city of Storozhynets in the western Ukrainian province of Chernivtsi on Sunday, offering fervent prayers to the Lord for the protection of their holy churches against the violent state church.”>prayer procession in the Chernivtsi city of Storozhynets, calling upon the Lord’s protection.

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