The foundation will be headquartered within Vatican City but will operate primarily in the extraterritorial area of Santa Maria di Galeria, northwest of Rome. Photo: Vatican Media

The ecclesiastical hitchhiking of Russian priests

From Vladivostok to Vilnius, priests are being reduced to the lay state. In a book published in Paris, where he has been reinstated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Father Aleksej Uminskij recounts receiving confused letters every week from former colleagues across the country. Many Orthodox priests find it impossible to pray for the war, but fear denunciations and ecclesiastical judgement.

Lebanon, Gaza and the Holy Land: Christians Caught Between War, Humanitarian Collapse and a Struggle for Religious Freedom

One of the most alarming incidents occurred in the Christian village of Taybeh, the last entirely Christian Palestinian town in the West Bank. On May 29, preparations for the community’s annual Marian festival were temporarily halted when Israeli military vehicles entered the village and ordered organizers to stop their work, despite the event having received the required authorizations from local authorities