As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine hit the 493-day mark June 30, OSV News sat down with Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, papal nuncio to Ukraine, to discuss his experiences of the war.

The Vatican is developing a plan to return to Ukraine children illegally deported to Russia but is not jockeying to mediate the war, Pope Francis’ peace envoy said upon his return from his mission to Moscow.

Amid the heat of combat, “the most important thing is not just to do the medicine, which comes automatically, but to be able to gather your thoughts and be focused in these stressful situations.”

The leaders of the Conference of Religious Leaders in France, representing Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Buddhist communities, issued a June 30 joint statement appealing for peace, harmony and fraternity amid violent protests that have engulfed the country.

Christians are called to be modern-day prophets who guide others to see the Holy Spirit at work in everyday life and not to be superstitious people who try to predict or control the future, Pope Francis said.

For Father Crabtree, music drove him closer to Christ and, eventually, closer to the church.

Highly skilled carpenters from four different companies are working together to rebuild the iconic Notre Dame spire before the grand reopening of the most famous European cathedral on Dec. 8, 2024. Among the craftsmen assigned to the prestigious task are two Americans: Jackson Dubois from New York and Michael Burrey from Boston.

Donations to the annual Peter’s Pence collection, which supports the work of the Roman Curia and funds the charitable activity of the pope, were down in 2022, but the amount of money the fund distributed increased significantly thanks to the proceeds of property sales, the Vatican said.

Ukraine must develop “a new social consensus” and “a new constitution” to ensure its post-war future, said Archbishop Borys Gudziak and several other endorsers of a June 28 document from Lviv’s Ukrainian Catholic University.

July 6 marks the 50th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Akita. On June 12, 1973, Sister Agnes Sasagawa of the Handmaids of the Eucharist began receiving heavenly visions in a convent located in Akita, Japan.