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In a video message issued on March 10, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, lamented what he described as the “mass murder” of Ukrainians following Russia’s full-scale invasion. He said the city of Mariupol, which was founded by the Greek community as the ‘City of Mary,’ has been transformed into a cemetery for tens of thousands of people. He went on: “Yesterday we saw horrific scenes of the bombarding of a maternity ward as well as scenes of mass graves, common burials, where hundreds of lifeless bodies are laid to rest.” The U.N. human rights office reported on March 9 that it had recorded 1,424 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including over 500 deaths, with the actual figures likely much higher.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250630/ukrainian-catholic-leader-mariupol-the-city-of-mary-has-been-turned-into-a-cemetery
The former residence of St. John Paul II in the Polish city of Kraków has opened its doors to Ukrainian refugees. The Catholic Archdiocese of Kraków said on March 9 that Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski had welcomed people fleeing the Ukraine war to the city’s Bishop’s Palace.
Karol Wojtyła, the future John Paul II, lived at residence from 1958 to 1978 when he was archbishop of Kraków. According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 2.1 million people had fled Ukraine as of March 8, and almost 1.3 million of them have traveled to Poland.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250621/ukraine-war-st-john-paul-ii-s-former-residence-in-krakow-poland-opens-doors-to-ukrainian-refugees
Four men were convicted on Wednesday of terrorist conspiracy, in the 2016 murder of French Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel. The 85-year-old priest was killed in a terrorist attack while he offered Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the northern French archdiocese of Rouen, on July 26, 2016. Three of the men convicted received between eight and 13 years in prison, and one received a life sentence in absentia.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250629/father-jacques-hamel-murder-catholic-archbishop-says-justice-is-done-as-4-are-convicted
Today, the church celebrates Saint John Ogilvie, a 16th- and 17th-century Scotsman who converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, served as a Jesuit priest, and died as a martyr after refusing to accept King James I’s claim of supremacy over the Church. He is the only post-Reformation Scottish saint.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-ogilvie-173