PRZEMYSL, Poland -- Buses, broken suitcases, a pile of strollers and tents stuffed with donated clothing, toys, diapers, canned food, stiff cots and blankets fill the parking lot of the defunct Tesco supermarket in Przemysl.

VATICAN CITY -- Catholic and Orthodox leaders in Europe have appealed to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, urging him to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to put an end to the bloodshed in Ukraine.

Last Friday morning, in the leadup to Lent, with Vladimir Putin’s invading troops on the doorstep of Ukraine, Pope Francis paid a surprise call on his neighbours at the Russian embassy on Rome’s Via della Conciliazione. 

After praying the Panachyda — traditional Byzantine prayers for the dead in time of war — Katia Metersky left Toronto’s St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in tears.

War is never moral. It is not ordered to the good. But the Church through the centuries has taught that when faced with war, or the prospect of war, we must think carefully and morally — prudence first. So, is a war that pits a broad Western alliance against Russian aggression in Ukraine a just war?

Brilliant young sociologist Tymofii Brik, of the Kyiv School of Economics, is normally happy to explain the subtleties of Ukrainian society and opinion. When The Catholic Register’s questions reached him last week, however, he was not in his scholarly comfort zone.

BALTIMORE -- Lighting a candle near the sanctuary inside St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in East Baltimore Feb. 27, Wendy Bozel struggled to contain her emotions.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis said his heart was "broken" by the war in Ukraine, and he pleaded again, "Silence the weapons!"

ROME -- As Russian troops approached Ukraine's capital, Pope Francis phoned the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, offering his encouragement and promising, "I will do everything I can" to help.

VATICAN CITY -- As Russia continued its assault on Ukraine and Russian troops pressed toward the capital, Kyiv, Pope Francis left the Vatican Feb. 25 to pay a visit to the Russian ambassador to the Holy See.

KYIV, Ukraine (CNS) -- As Russia fired missiles on several Ukrainian cities and Russian troops reportedly landed in Odessa, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church affirmed the right of Ukrainians to defend their homeland and assured his people that God would watch over them.

VATICAN CITY -- As the threat of war loomed over the world, Pope Francis called on people to pray and fast for peace in Ukraine on Ash Wednesday.

What might be called the messy, Ukrainian spirituality of democracy is threatened by more than 100,000 Russian troops on the border and a propaganda war that pretends Ukrainians and Russians are all part of one Orthodox and Slavic nation, according to the founder of the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in Toronto.

COVID has kept Fr. Mykhailo Ozorovych out of Ukraine the last two years, but he knows what the country of his birth is fighting for in Donbass and understands the threat Ukraine faces from more than 100,000 Russian troops massed on its eastern border.

ROME -- Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, Ukraine, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, knows his people are frightened.