Pope Francis’s Humanitarian Diplomacy for Ukraine: Between Peacemaking and Geopolitics

Pavlo Smytsnyuk is a Mary Seeger O’Boyle Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University.

Cardinal Zuppi’s Mission

On 18 July 2023, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden met with the Pope’s special envoy, Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, once again shining a spotlight on the Holy See’s peace efforts in the war in Ukraine. The meeting follows Zuppi’s encounters with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and with two senior officials in Moscow earlier this summer. Commentators now predict that Zuppi will make a similar voyage to Beijing.

(more…)

Continue Reading Pope Francis’s Humanitarian Diplomacy for Ukraine: Between Peacemaking and Geopolitics

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Religious Freedom: Dmytro Vovk’s Testimony before the USCIRF

Dmytro Vovk is a visiting associate professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Director of the Centre for the Rule of Law and Religion Studies, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine).

 I’d like to start by saying that contemporary Ukraine and Russia are antipodes in many respects, including with respect to religious freedom. While Ukraine has one of the most liberal religious legal frameworks in the region and a highly competitive religious market, Russia has managed to create a very restrictive religious legislation with one religion, the Russian Orthodox Church, being strongly endorsed and many religious minorities being severely discriminated against and oppressed. This stark contrast between Russia and Ukraine goes far beyond religion, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the Russia-Ukraine war is the war between two opposite political systems, where Ukraine’s is based on freedom and competition, while Russia’s is based on lack of freedom and on oppression.

(more…)

Continue Reading Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Religious Freedom: Dmytro Vovk’s Testimony before the USCIRF

The Russia-Ukraine War and Religion: One Year after the Beginning of the Invasion

In March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine had begun, we published a series exploring the role of religion in the war. In that series, we argued that the religious component of the conflict has manifested itself in a variety of aspects: from religious justification and rhetoric employed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, to the perception of the war by Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox churches, to threats to religious freedom in territories under Russian control.

Commemorating the first-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, we provide an update on these topics.

(more…)

Continue Reading The Russia-Ukraine War and Religion: One Year after the Beginning of the Invasion