Tag: Christianity

Gostovići, Bosnia and Herzegovina, February 5, 2025

Photo: mitropolijadabrobosanska.org     

The Diocese of Dabar and Bosnia of the Serbian Orthodox Church recently shared the story of a monastery that is being resurrected from the ruins.

“The case of the Udrim Monastery in Gostović near Zavidovići leaves every visitor breathless,” the diocese writes, “especially those who come with faith and love, not because of anything particularly special about it, but from the very fact that it miraculously emerges, not only from the ground and from its foundations, but also from its distant and still unknown past.”

“Could anyone have assumed or thought just 10 years ago that a ruin would bloom? Certainly not.”

On Sunday, February 2, His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostom of Dabar and Bosnia visited the monastery to inspect what has been done so far and to discuss the plans for this year, including covering the church and erecting the central dome. The Metropolitan also instructed how to begin organizing and arranging the entire area around the monastery to bring it to a state that will be appropriate for this holy place.

Photo: mitropolijadabrobosanska.org     

The diocese writes more about the ruin and revival of the monastery:

The monastery church was even worse than the ordinary ruins that were and still are scattered throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was a ruin of desecration, mockery, spitting, and rejection. We know all this today from living testimony of living people…

Today we know more than yesterday. Each day something new emerges from the monastery’s tragic and suppressed past. Thus we learned that a certain family usurped the monastery’s land and illegally sold it to a certain Muslim from Livno. The circumstances of his act are not yet fully known, but the misfortune that he brought upon this holy place is certainly known. Neither the first nor the last. Many used the time of communism and godlessness to seize not only church property but also that of their near and distant neighbors.

And who can compare to God? He doesn’t forget or abandon His holy places where His faithful servants once prayed to Him and were sanctified by Him. Once a holy place, always a holy place. We have no right to forget or abandon our holy places. This is the obligation of every Christian wherever they may be. Near or far, but everyone can and must participate in discovering not only our holy places but also our landmarks and our deeds.

So it once was with the ruins of Jerusalem. The Babylonian king destroyed it and turned it into ruins, but when God’s time of punishment was fulfilled, God sent His servant Nehemiah to rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem. And everything was restored and bloomed like a lily in the desert. And our Udrim is now growing and being restored like a lily by the road, bringing joy to the hearts and souls of all those who hold holy places dear.

The Udrim monastery, originally founded as an endowment by King Dragutin Nemanjić, represents a significant piece of medieval religious heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Though its exact date of destruction remains uncertain, local tradition attributes its ruin to the Austro-Turkish war, after which it lay abandoned for approximately 300 years.

Historical records indicate that before its destruction, the monastery was a thriving religious center in the 17th century, possessing extensive property including ten vineyards and housing numerous monks. The devastation of the monastery resulted in the loss of its archival materials, leaving many questions about its history unanswered.

It was proclaimed a cultural monument in 1970.

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When news reached the Archdiocese of Los Angeles that a truck full of supplies for families affected by recent wildfires was on its way from Kansas, religious leaders, school officials, students, parishioners and volunteers were ready.

In a video captured by the LACatholics digital team, a Penske truck packed to the brim with school supplies, toiletries and other necessities rolled up on Jan. 28 from St. Michael the Archangel Church in Leawood, Kansas, where its students and parishioners had gathered donations some 1,500 miles away to assist the many families affected by the Eaton Fire. 

The surprise arrival coincided with National Catholic Schools Week, celebrated this year Jan. 27-31.

The supplies mainly went to students and families from St. Elizabeth School in Altadena, where a significant number were displaced. Since the church and school remain closed since the fires,  the donations were brought to Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Pasadena, where many of the displaced students are attending.

St. Michael Deacon Greg Trum, who helped drive the truck, said the Kansas Catholic students before they donated were told to imagine what it would be like to wake up with nothing.

“[The principal] said, ‘If you woke up tomorrow and you had lost everything, what would you need?’ And that is what you should bring,” Trum said.

With the idea planted, St. Michael folks reached out to Paul Escala, senior director and superintendent of the archdiocese’s Department of Catholic Schools, to determine what essential items were needed.

In the video, a line of students from both St. Elizabeth and Assumption were standing by when the truck arrived, ready to carry the overabundance of boxes. Some students struggled under the weight of the heavy boxes — filled with everything from food to backpacks to toiletries — but with an assembly line in place, the much-needed supplies were safely secured and ready to distribute.

Also on hand to help were staff and officials from across the archdiocese, including LA Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes, who oversees the San Gabriel Pastoral Region.

“It’s just all these communities together and even when you look at the families that are helping from Kansas City, it’s just like one big family of love is reaching out to help people in need,” Nunes said. “It’s just amazing and it’s what we’re all about.”

After each box was safely unloaded, the group gathered — some students making heart gestures with their hands — and took photos and videos, and to celebrate a sense of community and care for one another, even in the face of hardship.

Trum and his traveling partner were invited to spend the night at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra before heading home. 

“We wanted to let the people know that we care about them,” he said. “We’re all brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s something we would do for our family and we recognize we’re all a family of God.”

The Wildfire Catholic School Tuition Relief Fund has been created to pay for students who have been displaced by the wildfires to continue attending Catholic school. To donate, visit cefwildfiretuitionrelief.funraise.org.

Kuremäe, Estonia, February 5, 2024

Photo: ​postimees.ee     

Abbess of the Pükhtitsa Dormition Convent in Estonia, Mother Philareta (Kalacheva), has written an open letter to the Estonian Parliament, responding to the new bill demanding that the monastery and the Estonian Orthodox Church leave the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Pükhtitsa was founded in 1891 with assistance from St. John of Kronstadt. Besides the Pskov Caves Monastery, it is the only holy habitation to have never closed during the long decades of atheist Bolshevik rule. However, now the monastery faces the possibility of closure because of its canonical status. Though on the territory of Estonia, it is a stavropegial monastery, meaning it falls directly under the episcopal oversight of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. Meanwhile, the Estonian Orthodox Church is a self-governing body within the Moscow Patriarchate.

There have been two Orthodox jurisdictions in Estonia since the Patriarchate of Constantinople established a structure parallel to the already existing Church under the Moscow Patriarchate in 1996. Constantinople’s Estonian Church has Constantinople’s Estonian Church proposes vicariate to subsume churches facing state pressureHowever, the EOC has said that it’s willing to hold discussions with the EAOC, but neither the hierarchy nor the faithful are willing to simply join the EAOC.

“>proposed the creation of a vicariate to subsume the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Estonian Orthodox Church, but the latter has Estonian Orthodox Church formally rejects proposal to join Constantinople’s jurisdictionOn September 19, the head of the EAOC proposed at a session of the Estonian Council of Churches to create a Russian vicariate to subsume parishes of the EOC-MP.”>rejected this option.

The Church also issued its own response to the new draft law Estonian Orthodox Church warns new bill threatens its existence in EstoniaIf the draft law is adopted, the Church’s legal entities may face forced liquidation, as it will be impossible to meet the prescribed requirements within the set timeframe.

“>last month.

In her letter, Abbess Philareta plainly states that the MPs know perfectly well that, despite repeated statements that the state isn’t trying to close any churches, the bill aims to place the Church and monastery outside the law, which will result in their closure.

As she has done several times in the past, the abbess again emphasizes that the nuns live a life of prayer, outside of politics, but the state wants them to bear the guilt for statements from Pat. Kirill about the war in Ukraine. Metropolitan Evgeny forced to leave EstoniaHis Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn and All Estonia was forced to leave the country today after the authorities refused to renew his residence permit.

“>Despite evicting the Estonian primate, His Eminence Metropolitan Evgeny of Tallinn, and moving to ban the Church, state authorities have never produced any evidence that the Church poses any kind of threat to national security.

“Do you truly want to go down in history as parliamentarians who forcibly terminated the existence of a well-known Orthodox convent in Estonia that has existed for more than a hundred years?”—something not even the godless Soviets did—Mother Philareta asks.

Read her full statement:

Dear Ministers, Dear Chairman of Parliament, Dear Members of Parliament!

We are addressing you after reading the draft law on amendments to the Law on Churches and Parishes of the Republic of Estonia.

We understand the purpose of the draft law—to force the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to change jurisdiction and come under the protection of Constantinople. And our repeated explanations that a monastery cannot independently initiate and reject jurisdiction have remained unheard.

Lawyers are handling the legal side of the document. We are simple nuns, we have never been deceitful with those in power, and now we say the same to you and society—we are honest in our position both before God and before people.

In the 90s, the monastery completely gave up all property, uncompromisingly and without claims gave everything to the state for the sake of spiritual connection with the Mother Church. We always fulfill the conditions of the contract concluded at that time.

Without a doubt, you understand perfectly well—by approving amendments to the law, you are placing the monastery outside the law, giving only 2 options: either a change of jurisdiction or forced liquidation—you understand perfectly well that by your actions you are effectively closing the monastery. Do you truly want to go down in history as parliamentarians who forcibly terminated the existence of a well-known Orthodox women’s monastery in Estonia that has existed for more than a hundred years?

The position of the state cannot fail to surprise us, placing responsibility for the current situation on the monastery’s inhabitants, making us responsible for decisions made by politicians. We left the world, we are far from political problems, we live outside politics serving God through prayer and work—yet we are literally being dragged into politics and accused of unwillingness to engage in dialogue.

We want to remind you of the story of long-suffering Job from the Old Testament, who lived righteously before God, and the Lord loved him, but the enemy of mankind, envious, began to say that Job was righteous only because God loved him and gave him everything. If he were to lose everything, he would blaspheme God. To this, the Lord gave the devil power to do with Job whatever he wanted, with one condition—not to touch his soul. The soul belongs only to God. Think about this…

The initiators of the draft law are forcing us to commit a canonical crime, motivating this by claiming they are trying to protect the monastery from problems. We will answer with the words of the ancient sage Socrates: “Plato is my friend, but TRUTH is dearer.”

To all the untruth regarding our holy and beloved monastery, we, the inhabitants, humbly respond: GOD be your JUDGE!…

Respectfully,

Abbess Philareta with the sisters

Estonia’s Pukhtitsa Monastery: If the state wants us to change jurisdiction, it can make its own appeal to the PatriarchIf the government of the Republic of Estonia, represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs, insists on changing the jurisdiction of the monastery, then as the initiator of the process, the government itself may approach Patriarch Kirill with a proposal to cancel the stavropegial status of Pukhtitsa Monastery. Abbess Philareta noted that such a course is canonically legitimate for the convent’s residents.

“>In April, the monastery issued a statement saying that if the Estonian government wants the monastery to leave the Moscow Patriarchate, then let the state make its own appeal to the Patriarch. Another statement from the abbess Pühtitsa abbess responds to Estonia’s demands to change Church jurisdictionThe monastery’s way of life is determined by its statutes, which prohibits an unauthorized change of jurisdiction.”>in November emphasized that the monastery is governed by its statutes, which don’t allow for a self-willed change of jurisdiction.

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Gomoa Fomena, Ghana, February 5, 2025

Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr     

Another mass Baptism was celebrated in Africa last week.

On the last day of January, 35 catechumens were united to Christ in the baptismal font at the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Gomoa Fomena, Ghana, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.

The Sacrament was presided over by Metropolitan Daniel of Accra of the Patriarchate of Alexandria with the concelebration of diocesan clergy.

“The old baptismal font of the Church, after many years, once again welcomed new Christians into its sanctified waters! All those present glorified God for the spiritual rebirth of new souls who embraced holy Orthodoxy.”

Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr     

After being baptized and chrismated, the newly illumined processed across the village with the clergy to the church of the Annunciation for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, where they partook of Holy Communion for the first time.

After the Divine Liturgy, the youth played sports and had spiritual classes on matters of the Orthodox faith. In the afternoon, a quiz bowl was held, where questions were posed regarding Holy Scripture, Orthodox Tradition, and liturgical practice.

The day concluded with the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Unction.

More than 50 were baptized Multiple mass Baptisms celebrated in Uganda during holiday seasonA series of mass Baptisms were celebrated in Uganda during the Nativity season.

“>in Uganda throughout the holiday season.

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On ConfessionThe main thing in Confession is that the grace of the Holy Spirit is at work there.

“>On Confession

St. Gabriel, Bishop of ImeretiBishop Gabriel (Kikodze) was born November 15, 1825, in the village of Bachvi, in the western Georgian district of Ozurgeti in Guria. His father was the priest Maxime Kikodze.

“>St. Gabriel of Imereti was a nineteenth-century Holy Hierarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church. He generously distributed alms to widows, orphans, and all in need; he clothed the naked and buried beggars, having mercy upon the least of the brethren. St. Gabriel was born on November 15, 1825, and reposed in the Lord on January 25, 1896.

Photo: I.Tkachenko / Pravoslavie.ru     

Whoever isn’t in the bosom of the Church isn’t a Christian, because he can’t receive the grace of Jesus Christ. How does the Church grant the grace of Jesus Christ? First through How Do Christians Explain That Baptism Is Vital?Baptism is the first Church sacrament that a person who comes to believe in Christ encounters. A baptized person becomes a Church member and gets the opportunity to be in contact with God and receive His grace. But why is all of this possible only on condition of Baptism?

“>Baptism, then through the teaching and preaching of the Gospel, through the Holy Scriptures; but the main thing is that the Church not only brings us into communion with the grace of Jesus Christ, but also unites us with Him in the Communion of His Flesh and Blood.

The Church never leaves you alone, orphaned. In joy or sorrow, it guides us with prayer, consolation, and teaching. If we fall into sin, the Church doesn’t reject us, but accepts us as a guilty child, and if we repent, it grants forgiveness in the name of the Savior Jesus Christ. When you depart this life, the Church again leads the way and prays to the Lord for mercy for your soul. And finally, if you’re forgotten by all your loved ones, the Church won’t forget you then either, for it remembers the deceased at every service and fervently prays for the blessed repose of all who have died. In a word, from birth to our very death, the Church, like a true mother, takes care of you and tries to raise you as a true believer.

The Church brings us together, teaching love and unity. This world, with its earthly affairs and cares, divides men, distances them from one another, and often turns them into enemies; but the Church, on the contrary, brings us closer, inspiring mutual love and respect. In the Church, we’re all one—the same prayers are offered for all and the same divine service is offered for all; we’re baptized in the same font and we commune from the same chalice. And we must be faithful and obedient to the Church.

The Church is our mother, for it gave birth to us from the holy baptismal font and nourishes us spiritually in the Sacraments. But we should remember that the Church only benefits and gives the light of its teaching and salvation to those who hear its call and follow it. It’s only in the Church that the Word of God and His teaching are fully heard; only the Church is the house of the Lord on earth—there the bloodless sacrifice and prayers and hymns are offered. It’s precisely in the Church that a man should seek solace and draw strength, power, and fortitude. Blessed is he who is firmly attached to the Church, goes to church often, and always yearns for it with all his heart and soul. Such a man is full of the grace of God and never tires of praising the Lord. In church, the heart and soul of such a man are calm and peaceful, but in the world, on the contrary, they’re agitated and worried. The Church is a comfort to the sorrowing and an inspiration for performing various good deeds; it enlightens and spiritually nurtures men, teaching them to have great love for their neighbors, for all that is pure and holy, and to give thanks for everything in a single accord, praising our Heavenly Father and Creator.

To be continued…

Several prominent Catholic thinkers and policy experts are backing a new pro-family policy agenda on the future of technology.

Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan T. Anderson, author and University of Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen, and Princeton University’s Robert P. George are among the 28 signatories of the declaration on technology, “A Future for the Family: A New Technology Agenda for the Right.”

Published in First Things magazine on Jan. 29, the declaration serves as a mission statement for a broader initiative, “A Future for the Family,” sponsored by several prominent pro-family think tanks, including the Institute for Family Studies, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Foundation for American Innovation, and the Heritage Foundation.

“A new era of technological change is upon us. It threatens to supplant the human person and make the family functionally and biologically unnecessary. But this anti-human outcome is not inevitable,” the statement reads. “We must enact policies that elevate the family to a primary constituency of technological advancement.”

The statement offers 10 “guiding principles” for using technology to serve families instead of “military, bureaucratic, and corporate purposes.” Among them are calls to “respect the natural cycle of mortality,” to promote natural fertility methods, and to safeguard human sexuality from societal ills such as pornography, child sex abuse materials, and other AI-generated sexual content.

The statement’s authors also called for measures to combat addictive software on smart devices, especially for children, increased data protection in legislation, promotion of technologies “that enhanced human skill and improve worker satisfaction,” and more projects that encourage “cultivation of the natural world.”

“To undermine the family is to undo the future,” the statement concludes. “To strengthen the family is to fill the future with possibility, invention, and hope.”

Additional signatories include Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, University of Notre Dame law professor and Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow O. Carter Snead, and First Things editor R.R. Reno.

As Russia sent a barrage of rockets to Ukraine over the weekend of Feb. 1-2, a bishop living in an eastern Ukraine diocese on the front lines of war said such events make hope “rather waning” for his people.

But papal gestures and some perspectives for peace under the new U.S. presidential administration, he added, “flare up hope” as the country prepares for the third anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion that started Feb. 24, 2022.

“They always hit most at night, counting on a lower capacity of Ukrainian soldiers’ vigilance,” Auxiliary Bishop Jan Sobilo of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia told OSV News Feb. 3.

Bishop Sobilo said that he was traveling from Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv late at night Oct. 31, as “the Shahed drones were flying and our soldiers were hunting them,” adding “it’s a real shootout to throw them down.”

The weekend cannonade started Jan. 30 in the middle of the night, as a Russian drone hit an apartment building in Sumy, killing at least six people — three older married couples — and wounding nine others, including a child, the region’s officials said.

Also at night, on Jan. 31, the historic city of Odesa was targeted as UNESCO-branded sites suffered from the Russian missile attack, injuring seven people and with debris falling close to the city’s famous 19th-century opera house. The historic Bristol hotel was hit, shattering glass and crumbling decorative elements in the splendid, ornamented interiors.

On Feb. 1, a Russian strike in Poltava killed at least seven people and injured 14 more, including three children, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said, when another nighttime missile hit the apartment building.

The weekend nights throughout eastern Ukraine were heavy with sirens, wth Basilian Sister Lucia Murashko of the order’s Zaporizhzhia monastery telling OSV News in a Feb. 1 text message that while she and her fellow sisters were safe, “it was very hard to hear and think that someone suffered … every time we heard explosions.”

The sisters along with 80 children had narrowly escaped a Dec. 6 strike on Zaporizhzhia by Russian forces. The group was celebrating a Divine Liturgy at the time of that attack, which among other victims killed two adults known to the sisters.

“The suffering of Ukrainians really reaches to heaven,” said Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, in a Feb. 2 comment for Vatican News. “You can see it in the graves of soldiers in their 20s and widows who come to them and pray with their young children for their husbands and fathers, and the entire cemetery is covered with national flags. So you just have to be with these people.”

Bishop Sobilo said that while hope is “rather waning” for the people of Ukraine as they reach a dark milestone of three years of full scale invasion on Feb. 24.

“This is the line for bread distributed at our sanctuary,” he said, sending a video of an endless crowd of people in line to get bread distributed in a local sanctuary. “Businesses are closed, jobs uncertain, people fell into poverty,” he said, explaining that four times a week 1,500 people wait in line in the freezing cold to get a loaf of bread.

But he also pointed out that one who lifts up the Ukrainian Catholics is Pope Francis and his constant “gestures of closeness and help pouring from Vatican charities.”

“You ask about hope — it is very much diminished when people experience strikes and see fresh graves at their cemeteries,” the bishop told OSV News, “but solidarity is lifting them up,” he said.

On Feb. 1 about 250 young people gathered in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Cathedral of the Resurrection in Kyiv, as well as in Lutsk and Donetsk in Ukraine and in Warsaw, Munich, London, Chicago and Toronto, to speak to Pope Francis who connected to their meeting online.

“We could not invite more youth to follow us live — even though we would love to — because it was simply too dangerous,” Bishop Sobilo said of a meeting hosted by Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Vatican nuncio to Ukraine and attended by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

“We were prepared to go to the shelter at any moment, and spreading the news about the transmission could put the youth gathered there in danger of an attack,” he added.

“But everything went great, it was a really nice meeting that gave youth a lot of hope and a feeling of closeness of the Holy Father, who remembers about Ukraine every week during audiences and Angelus prayers,” Bishop Sobilo told OSV News.

“Pope Francis told the youth the story of a young soldier who died, and his fellow soldiers found a Scripture and rosary in his pockets. The young soldier prayed often and the pope told the youth to combine both, a love to God and a love to their homeland,” he said.

“It was like a good grandfather giving wise advice to his grandchildren,” Bishop Sobilo said, adding that Ukrainians desperately need such gestures of support.

“Many people are on the brink of endurance in Ukraine, some are very tired, but after such events as the one with the youth and the pope, there is a revival of hope that maybe God will give us the grace to live to see the day of victory after all.”

The bishop said that people are looking at the new U.S. administration with hope as well. “The sole fact that the American president talks about the ending of the war gives people hope,” Bishop Sobilo said, adding that “of course it all depends on what would be the conditions of this victory.”

Bishop Sobilo spoke after President Donald Trump said Jan. 31 that American and Russian officials were “already talking” about ending the war and that his administration has had “very serious” discussions with Russia.

The following day, president Volodymy Zelenskyy told The Associated Press that talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine without his country at the negotiation table would be “very dangerous” and asked for more discussions between Kyiv and Washington to develop a plan for a ceasefire, AP said.

“We need solidarity with Ukraine,” Bishop Sobilo said. “I thank everyone for something I call ‘information solidarity’ — for talking and writing about the suffering of Ukrainians and the massacres conducted by Russians here.”

He said the Jubilee Holy Door in the Sanctuary of God the Merciful Father in Zaporizhzhia has been opened since the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015- 2016.

“When the whole world was closing its Jubilee doors in 2016, Pope Francis asked us to keep them open in Zaporizhzhia, because of the proximity of the frontline,” Bishop Sobilo said of the initial stage of the war after Russia occupied Crimea in 2014. “The pope wanted those doors open until the end of the war. This will be the case. The hope coming from God is always greatest,” he said, referring to the theme of the Jubilee of Hope 2025.

The fact that Ukrainians still cling to hope “Humanly speaking, it’s hard to understand, because I don’t think there’s any family out there in which someone hasn’t been killed, maimed or traumatized,” Cardinal Krajewski said. “And there is no hatred. There is great hope. They live in hope that this lawlessness will finally end, that this senseless war will end,” the papal almoner said.

Russia, February 4, 2025

Photo: ria.ru     

Hundreds of private clinics throughout Russia have voluntarily refused to perform abortions, and there is hope that the barbaric procedure will be completely outlawed in private clinics this year, says the Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood.

Speaking at the annual Christmas Educational Readings at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral last week, Fr. Feodor Lukianov stated that according to the data available to him, there are 532 private clinics that no longer perform abortions, reports RIA-Novosti.

“In this new year, we must finally remove abortions from private clinics, putting them under state control,” Fr. Feodor said. “This will be a serious step toward ending child killings and stimulating birth rates. The bill to transfer abortions from private clinics to state control will definitely be adopted with appropriate revisions.”

At the same time, abortions are performed for free with the state’s compulsory medical insurance (upon request through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; in cases of rape and certain other circumstances up to 22 weeks; or at any time for medical reasons).

The practice of private clinics voluntarily stopping abortions is “bearing wonderful results,” the priest said. “In the Republic of Crimea, where all private clinics have refused to perform abortions, we see that the number of women who decided to continue their pregnancies has increased significantly because they went to state clinics.”

Fr. Feodor also drew attention to the numerical predominance of clinics licensed for abortion over maternity hospitals. “This is a crime against Russia’s future,” he lamented.

Earlier that same day, a number of prominent Russian scientists and medical professionals came forward with an initiative to ban abortions in private clinics and explained why human life should be legally protected from the moment of conception.

Representatives of Russian and foreign NGOs also International Declaration on Family Protection signed at Moscow’s Christ the Savior CathedralAccording to the document, family values “must be reliably protected by society and state.”

“>signed an International Declaration on Family Protection during the Christmas Readings.

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The church must welcome young people and embrace their desires and doubts to bring them closer to Jesus and ultimately open them up to receiving God’s call, Pope Francis said.

“God still calls young people even today, sometimes in ways we can’t imagine,” the pope said in a video message to present his prayer intention for the month of February: “For vocations to the priesthood and religious life.”

“Sometimes we don’t hear because we’re too busy with our own things, our own plans, even with our own things in the church,” Pope Francis said in his message released by the Vatican Feb. 4. “But the Holy Spirit also speaks to us through dreams and speaks to us through the concerns young people feel in their hearts.”

The pope said that by accompanying young people in their life journeys “we’ll see how God is doing new things with them, and we’ll be able to welcome his call in ways that better serve the church and the world today.”

Pope Francis called for prayers so that the church may “welcome the desires and doubts of those young people who feel called to live Jesus’ mission in life, either through the priestly life or religious life.”

“Let us trust young people,” he said. “And let us trust God, for he calls everyone.”