On Spiritual Resources and Common Homes: A Look at Crimes in Ukraine in Conversation with Raphael Lemkin and Pope Francis

Greg Marcar is a research associate at the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University of Otago (New Zealand). He is also a co-editor, with Tania Pagotto and Joshua Roose, of Security, Religion, and the Rule of Law: International Perspectives (Routledge, forthcoming).

Genocide

Coined by the father of the 1950 Genocide Convention, Polish Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin (1900–59), the term genocide combines the Latin term cide (killing) with the Greek term genos (group). In deciding on this combination of terms, Lemkin rejected the suggestion that cide should be more straightforwardly combined with the Latin genus.[1] Lemkin’s rationale for this centered on his belief that the Greek term was broader in scope than its Latin equivalent,[2] as exemplified for Lemkin by the epistles of (Pseudo)Plato, identifying philosophers as a genos.[3] For Lemkin and his supporters at the UN, what makes a particular collectivity a human genos is its religious, philosophical, or cultural spirit. Consequently, genocide signifies an attempt not only to eradicate a genos’s physical existence but also to destroy its cultural-spiritual “life.”[4] Indeed, Lemkin elsewhere argues that “[t]he philosophy of the Genocide Convention” entails that human groups be protected “not only by reasons of human compassion but also to prevent draining the spiritual resources of [hu]mankind.”[5] Although not always understood as such, the concept of genocide expounded by Lemkin was inextricably connected to human spirit.

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The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Pope Francis, and Russia’s War against Ukraine

Photo by Barbara Mair

Thomas Mark Németh is Professor of Theology of the Eastern Churches at the Catholic Faculty of the University of Vienna and Priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

In this article I focus on the Pope’s attitude toward the Russian-Ukrainian war in the context of the Vatican’s relations with Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). [1] Standing in full communion with the Roman Pontiff and belonging to the Catholic Church, the UGCC is also a sui iuris Church with a specific autonomy, having its own first hierarch and a Synod of Bishops and sharing the Byzantine Rite with the Orthodox Church.

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The Constitutional Crisis in Israel: Religious Dimension

Many observers call Israel’s current constitutional crisis the biggest political challenge for the state since its establishment in 1948. Both parties—the coalition government and the opposition, as well as their supporters—are extremely polarized, with little room for compromise. While the major cause of the crisis (the reform of Israel’s Supreme Court) seems to be purely secular, a deeper look reveals a variety of religious aspects to the crisis.

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