From Ukraine, Sister Ligy Payyappilly, a nun from Kerala, shares her account of a journey to the areas closest to the front line of the war with Russia. “We have been alongside people for whom the war is not just news but a daily struggle for survival. The challenge is to give children living here a chance.”
During a meeting with Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, the mayor of the coastal town invited Pope Leo XIV to the Solmoe Shrine in the “cradle of Korean Catholicism”. St Andrew Kim Taegon and his companions are among the patron saints of the event. An agreement has been reached between the Seoul 2027 WYD Foundation and the South Korean public broadcaster KBS for the international broadcast of the event.
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil facilities are also having repercussions in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, with rising prices, a shortage of aviation fuel and growing uncertainty over energy security. Meanwhile, Moscow is seeking supplies from Kazakhstan, which has restricted exports to protect its domestic market.
After the Angelus, Leo XIV spoke about Francis Xavier Tru'o'ng Bǚu Diệp (1897-1946), a priest beatified on 2 July in Vietnam, killed "in hatred of the faith”. “May his intercession” helps those in “situations of persecution today.” The pope reiterated his closeness to the people of Venezuela. “God’s way” is to reveal himself “to infants,” he said commenting today’s Gospel.
Leo XIV issues a warning on the island in the heart of the Mediterranean, 13 years after Pope Francis’s historic visit. “Those who have lost their lives in this sea are victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made,” he said. The pontiff urged Europe to address this challenge “in a comprehensive manner” without fear, and called on the United States, on its 250th anniversary, not to forget migrants’ “hopes, sacrifices and contribution”.
Today, Washington and Beijing clash over tariffs, Taiwan, and technology. Yet Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and other leading figures of the American Revolution also found inspiration in the thoughts of Confucius and the meritocratic system of the Chinese empire. This forgotten story speaks to a different beginning in relations between the two powers.
