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Last Updated: 09 June 2015

CWN - The conflict in Ukraine will loom over a meeting next week between Pope Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Vatican has confirmed that the Pope will meet with the Russian leader on June 10. Putin will be in Italy to visit the Milan Expo.

While the Ukrainian Catholic Church has repeatedly denounced Russian aggression in Ukraine, the Vatican has avoided direct comment on the conflict. In one of his few comments on the issue, Pope Francis spoke of his sorrow about the “war between Christians,” leaving some Ukrainian Catholics feeling that the Pontiff had missed an opportunity to speak in their defense.

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Last Updated: 05 June 2015

CWN - The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, called for additional military action to stop the “cancer” of the Islamic State.

“Military action is needed in order to stop ISIS. It is a cancer that needs to be stopped, just like this illness,” said Archbishop Basha Warda. “Humanitarian aid needs to continue in order to deal with the growing number of refugees who are arriving in Kurdistan.”

“I know it may seem strange that a bishop should put military intervention first, but sometimes unfortunate measures need to be taken, as in this case, because we are faced with a cancer,” he added, as he described ISIS as “a threat not only to Christians in the region but also to Sunnis, Yazidis, and to the whole world.”

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Last Updated: 04 June 2015

CWN - The largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches has severed its ecumenical dialogue with two Protestant communities.

The Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations explained:

On May 16, 2015, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland allowed ordination of gay people in civil partnership and on May 21 voted to continue the study of this matter aimed at an extension of the adopted decision. On May 17, the Synod of the United Protestant Church of France allowed a possibility of blessing the so called same-sex unions … We state with profound grief that today we have new divisions in the Christian world not only on theological problems, but also on the moral issues.

Citing similar reasons, the Moscow Patriarchate previously severed its dialogue with the Episcopal Church and the Church of Sweden.

The Church of Scotland, Calvinist in its origins and Presbyterian in its government, dates to 1560, while the United Protestant Church of France dates from a 2013 merger of France’s main Reformed and Lutheran bodies.

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Last Updated: 04 June 2015

risu.org.ua - On June 2, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Law “On amendments to some laws of Ukraine regulating the establishment of educational institutions by religious organizations”. It entitles thereligious organizations, whose regulations (provisions) have been registered according to established procedure, to establish educational institutions (primary, secondary, after-school, vocational and higher institutions).

The respective draft bill has been registered under No. 1447. It was drawn up by the MPs of the Popular Front faction: Pavlo Unguryan, Lilia Hrynevych and Victor Yelenskyy. According to the parliament website, the bill was supported by 237 deputies.

Before voting on the bill in the first reading, Chair of the Committee on Science and Spirituality Lilia Hrynevych said:“Today, any person, any citizen is entitled to establish their own private educational institution, and religious organizations are devoid of this right! This is a result of our post-Soviet interpretation of the separation of church and stateprinciple. Yes, the state has no right to interfere in church matters, and the church should not interfere in state matters, but they may interact. This interaction isthe most successful in the world in education area,” the deputy says.

Note that for the first time the initiative regarding the rights of religious organizations to establish general educational institutions emerged in the 90s of XX century. Then the first such educational institutions appeared, being establishedby charitable foundations or individuals. Today there are dozens of schools belonging to different faiths, but their official founders are not religious organizations. Many times, similar bills, while supported by members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations, were obstructed at the level of MPs or government. The supported bill was registered in Parliament in December 2014.

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Last Updated: 04 June 2015

CWN - Vladimir Putin will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican on June 10, according to an Italian media report.

The Russian president, who met with the Pontiff in 2013, will arrive in Italy on June 9 for a visit to the world’s fair, Expo Milano 2015.

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Last Updated: 04 June 2015

CWN - Forces of the Islamic State are ten miles away from Alqosh, a largely Chaldean Catholic town that is the site of what is believed to be Nahum’s tomb.

The Old Testament prophet’s tomb is located in a former synagogue. When Alqosh’s Jews emigrated in 1949 amid persecution, they entrusted the tomb to a Christian whose grandson cares for the tomb today.

“I’m not sure how long my family will continue to stay in Iraq; we want to leave, most of the Christians want to leave,” Asir Salaam Shajaa told an Israeli newspaper. “My brother says he will stay, though ... It will stay in the family, God willing.”