Category: 2022 News

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Two cardinals arrived at separate destinations on one mission entrusted to them by Pope Francis: to bring relief, hope and encouragement to suffering Ukrainians.

Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, arrived in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv March 8 and met with Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, head of the Latin-rite Archdiocese of Lviv.

Father Andriy Soletskyy, a spokesman for Archbishop Shevchuk, told Catholic News Service March 9 that Archbishop Shevchuk traveled from Kyiv to Lviv the day before specifically to meet with Cardinal Krajewski and help him fulfill the mission Pope Francis had entrusted to him. That may include helping the cardinal get to Kyiv “if possible,” Father Soletskyy said.

However, he said, for the security of both the cardinal and Archbishop Shevchuk, the church will not share details of how or when either is traveling.

Lviv has not been shelled, “thanks be to God,” Father Soletskyy said, but the city in Western Ukraine is being overwhelmed with displaced people gathering there to try to find rides, trains or buses to Poland, Hungary or Romania. People are sleeping in line at the train station and every church has opened as a shelter.

But with Lviv’s population having doubled in the past two weeks, he said, the ability to shelter and feed everyone is becoming critical.

According to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cardinal Krajewski was to visit a variety of social service centers and take part March 10 in a joint prayer service with “representatives of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and religious organizations.”

Prior to his arrival in Ukraine, Cardinal Krajewski met with Caritas volunteers helping refugees in several Polish cities near the border with Ukraine.

According to the Polish Catholic weekly Gosc Niedzielny, the Polish cardinal was asked by journalists if he was afraid of entering a war zone.

“I am afraid, as everyone is afraid, but I went to confession before leaving; I have no debts, I wrote a will,” he said. “I go freely to bring the Gospel. I want to be with these people.”

Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, interim president of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, arrived in Budapest, Hungary, March 8 and visited the Keleti train station where he met with Caritas volunteers and thanked them for their work.

He also met with refugees who fled the violence in Ukraine, including two medical students from Nigeria as well as several from China and Vietnam. Despite reports of discrimination against African and Asian residents in Ukraine attempting to flee the country, Vatican News said the group did not experience difficulties crossing the border.

According to Vatican News, one of the Nigerian students, Joyce, told Cardinal Czerny, “I just want to go home.” Cardinal Czerny shook her hand and replied, “Good luck. God is with you, and the pope is close to you.”

The cardinal met March 9 with Zsolt Semjén, Hungary’s deputy prime minister, who assured him Hungary would welcome all refugees from Ukraine “without limits.”

Vatican News said the cardinal asked Semjén to make that welcoming attitude a permanent part of Hungarian government policy and to expand the country’s welcoming of people seeking refuge. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been promoting an extremely restrictive immigration policy for the country.

BALTIMORE (CNS) – In response to more than 2 million refugees, primarily women and children, fleeing the conflict in Ukraine in recent weeks, the president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services said it is “alarming to see the scale of the suffering” in the region.

In a March 8 statement, Sean Callahan said CRS partners and staff inside Ukraine and in Moldova and Poland have “heard of children dragging bulky luggage, their faces wet from tears” and also have heard of “crowds huddling inside bus terminals for shelter, knee-deep in their belongings.”

“The weight of the trauma lives on the faces of young and old alike,” he added.

Callahan also noted that CRS, the U.S. bishops’ relief and development agency, has seen “tremendous acts of solidarity and generosity” from countries receiving refugees and from those donating to CRS and Caritas partners that are providing food, shelter, relief items, counseling and information services to displaced people in Ukraine and refugees in Moldova, Poland and Romania.

“With all of this in mind, we join the pope in calling for an immediate end to the fighting,” he said, adding that wars in Syria and elsewhere have demonstrated that “people will continue to suffer until there is peace.”

During this time of conflict in Ukraine, CRS has been supporting Caritas Ukraine, an agency of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and Caritas Spes, an agency of the Romanian Catholic Church, with the following:

— Field kitchens providing hot lunches and snacks.

— Reception services at Caritas offices, train stations and other locations for displaced people with clothing, information, referrals, food, water, hygiene items and counseling services.

— Transportation of displaced families to friends, families and local social services.

— Evacuation centers providing shelter, food and counseling services for displaced families.

CRS is assisting Caritas Moldova in providing food and relief items to refugees at government-run reception centers and plans to establish additional centers.

The Baltimore-based agency also is helping transport refugees from the Ukraine border and mobilizing hosts to provide homes for refugee families.

In Romania, Caritas agencies with CRS support have mobilized volunteers, equipped facilities and helped refugee centers, currently at capacity, in serving hundreds of refugee families crossing the borders.

Caritas Poland is similarly providing assistance to arriving Ukrainians at multiple border-crossing points and supporting the shipment of relief supplies into Ukraine.

CRS is assisting the agency to prepare a cash assistance program to reach an estimated 300,000 households. It also is providing shelter to refugee orphans in coordination with the Polish government.

ROME (CNS) – Condemning Russia’s bombing of a children’s and maternity hospital in Ukraine, the Vatican secretary of state insisted diplomacy and negotiations are the only ways to prevent the situation from getting much worse.

“If everyone clings to their positions, nothing can be done. The war will continue and become increasingly deadly, and with the prospect, God help us, that it could even spread. I hope not, I hope not,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, told reporters March 9.

The cardinal, who met with reporters after giving a speech at Rome’s Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, was asked about the Russian shelling of the hospital in Mariupol. A city official told the BBC three people, including a child, were killed and at least 17 were injured.

“Bombing a hospital is unacceptable. There are no reasons, there are no motivations, to do this,” Cardinal Parolin said.

Questioning Russia’s action “is not only legitimate, but obligatory,” he said.

The “first version” Russian President Vladimir Putin gave for invading Ukraine, the cardinal said, was that it “was a military operation aimed only at destroying military installations in Ukraine in order to guarantee the security of Russia. But, obviously, bombing a hospital for children, a pediatric hospital, has nothing to do with this purpose.”

Pope Francis, after reciting the Angelus March 6, specifically rejected Putin’s claim, saying, “It is not merely a ‘military operation,’ but a war, which sows death, destruction and misery.”

Cardinal Parolin also was asked about his telephone conversation March 8 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The two spoke for more than 30 minutes, he said, and he pleaded with Lavrov, including on behalf of Pope Francis, to protect civilians and to guarantee the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to flee and to permit the delivery of humanitarian aid.

“It’s not like he gave me any guarantees,” Cardinal Parolin said.

“I’m very worried,” he said. “First of all, for what is happening. It’s an all-out war.”

Cardinal Parolin also was asked about comments by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow in support of Putin’s war and, seemingly, his view that the common roots of Russian and Ukrainian faith and culture mean that Ukraine should remain always under Russia’s influence. The patriarch blamed the West for driving a wedge between Russia and Ukraine, including by promoting “gay parades” and other attacks on traditional moral values.

The Italian news agency ANSA said Cardinal Parolin responded, “Kirill’s words do not favor and do not promote an understanding, on the contrary, they risk igniting tempers even more and going toward an escalation and not resolving the crisis peacefully.”

IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine (CNS) – The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk opened its doors to people fleeing Russian bombing in other parts of Ukraine and what it found were not only guests but volunteers.

The archeparchy, based about 300 miles west of Kyiv, is hosting more than 1,200 displaced people from other parts of Ukraine, said an article posted on its website March 9.

In addition to about 450 people staying in rectories throughout the archeparchy, it said, guests are staying with seminarians at the Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Seminary of St. Josaphat, a church-run summer camp in Podlyute and at St. Basil the Great High School in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Most of the guests, the archeparchy said, “try actively to help and become volunteers themselves.”

The seminary had 142 guests March 9 and had hosted more than 300 internally displaced people since the Russian invasion began Feb. 24, the article said.

Nikita is one of the guests. He was forced to leave his home in Donetsk in 2014 when Russian-backed rebels began fighting; he moved to Kyiv but was forced to flee again.

He had studied at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, he said, so he was familiar with the Byzantine-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church.

“What impresses us the most here is the feeling of security, as well as the friendly attitude,” he said. “It seems as if we have known the seminarians and fathers who are here for many years. I am very grateful to them for that.”

While hosting the displaced people and engaging in a variety of volunteer work, three dozen seminarians and priests also continue with their daily program of worship and prayer. Many of their guests join them each morning for the Divine Liturgy.

At the church’s summer camp in Podlyute, near the Carpathian Mountains, 80 guests are in residence and are assisted by Father Vasyl Filipovych, who provides shelter and food, but also spiritual care and confessions.

Father Markian Bukatchuk, who teaches at St. Basil the Great High School, said 82 people had stayed at the school, living “in the classrooms where we have put beds and mattresses. Through our joint efforts, we have provided everyone who lives with us with three full meals daily” in the school cafeteria.

BARABÁS, Hungary (CNS) – As millions of Ukrainian refugees continue to flee the ongoing violence of Russian aggression, many have found some comfort in neighboring Hungary thanks to the efforts of Caritas.

Arriving in the border town of Barabás, refugees are immediately taken to the charitable organization’s makeshift refugee center, where they are given shelter, a hot meal and much needed rest after a harrowing journey.

In general, “we are hosting between 300-400 people” daily since the start of the war, said Balint Vadasz, Caritas Hungary’s head of emergency response.

Since the Russian attack began at the end of February, some 2,000 refugees have crossed the border into Barabás. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, as of March 9, more than 214,000 people have fled Ukraine to Hungary.

“Here we are trying to help them to move forward, to plan their future and, if necessary, to transport them to the central train station, where they can travel for free in Hungary,” Vadasz told Catholic News Service March 10.

At the refugee center, new arrivals laid down and rested on cots set up in a hall for them. Nearby, tables were laden with sandwiches, beverages, cookies as well as toys and plush animals for the kids.

The walls are decorated with dozens of pictures drawn by the many children who have passed through the refugee center. The drawings feature butterflies, flowers and families holding hands. Yet, many of the pictures also revealed the children’s longing for their homeland, shown in drawings of hearts colored with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

Some of the 62 refugees that arrived the morning of March 10 were napping, exhausted from their ordeal while children talked excitedly as they snacked on sweets, drew in coloring books or played games.

Their parents, however, looked on with concern and uncertainty about the future. A young father stared blankly at his son playing with a toy while a mother at the other end of the hall looked through her phone as her baby slept peacefully on a cot.

“It’s really hard to see these people, to see that pain,” Bettina Vig, a Caritas volunteer, told CNS. “But I think they still don’t yet realize their situation.”

Vig said she hoped Russia’s attack on Ukraine would “stop as soon as possible and that they realize they are wasting lives.”

Another volunteer, Ditta Krajcsovicz, recalled one woman, who arrived with her small son at the center, and said she had had only had three hours to pack their lives in a small backpack before Russian bombs started to fall.

“It was really hard to see how they were like,” Krajcsovicz told CNS. “They had no sadness in their faces but still, you could see it in their eyes; they don’t know what is happening or where they would go. They just had three hours to pack one backpack. That was pretty tough for me” to see.

Gasz Mihaly, who began volunteering a week earlier and helps in between his university studies, said he was inspired by the spirit of service in his family, many of whom are doctors.

On his first day at the refugee center, he received a Facebook message from a Ukrainian man living in the United Arab Emirates who wanted to know if Mihaly could get him a ride to one of the towns along the Hungary-Ukraine border.

The man, he said, planned to fly to Hungary and enter Ukraine to fight against the Russians.

“That really touched me. He had a safe and beautiful life in the Emirates and came back to fight in the war. I thought that if I were in his position, I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Yet for Mihaly, the heart-wrenching stories of some of the people fleeing to Hungary left a lasting impression.

“There was a guy who came by, dressed in a tie and a very beautiful suit,” he recalled. “He came up to me, very shy, and said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have money to go to Budapest. Can you take me to the train station?'”

Others, Mihaly said, arrived in Barabás with no hope of ever returning to their homeland.

“There was someone who came here today and said that he would not return to Ukraine because all that he had there was destroyed by the bombings. So now, he has to start a new life and he is over 50 years old,” he said.

Despite the sorrow and despair he continues to witness at the refugee center, Mihaly told CNS that he still holds onto hope for peace in Ukraine.

“I really think that the war will end soon and everyone who wants can go back,” he said. “And they will have the opportunity and the help of the West to rebuild their homes and rebuild their society.”

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As the Russian military continues to bombard Ukraine, the Vatican is mobilizing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to those suffering.

After Pope Francis’ announcement that he was sending two cardinals to Ukraine, the Vatican said March 7 that Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner, and Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, interim president of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, intend to reach Ukraine “in the coming days,” depending on the situation.

“Cardinal Krajewski is on his way now, March 7, toward the Polish-Ukraine border where he will visit refugees and volunteers in shelters and homes,” the Vatican said. Cardinal Czerny was to arrive in Hungary March 8 “to visit some reception centers for the migrants coming from Ukraine,” the Vatican said.

“The cardinals will bring aid to the needy and serve as the presence not only of the pope, but of all the Christian people who express solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” the statement said.

According to the Vatican, Cardinal Czerny also intends to raise concerns regarding the treatment of African and Asian residents in Ukraine. Many have reported acts of discrimination against them as they attempt to flee the country.

“There are also worrisome reports of increasing activities of human trafficking and smuggling of migrants at the borders and in the neighboring countries,” the statement said.

The office of the papal almoner also organized a collection March 7 in Vatican City for employees who wished to donate food and medicine. The collection, the office said, “will be immediately sent to Ukraine through the Basilica of Saint Sophia, the church of the Ukrainians in Rome.”

Before announcing the cardinals’ mission to Ukraine, Pope Francis condemned the war in Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called “a special military operation.”

“Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine. It is not merely a military operation, but a war, which sows death, destruction and misery,” the pope said March 6.

In a video message released March 7, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, thanked the pope for “clearly and distinctly” saying that “this is not some kind of operation; this is a war.”

It is a “war, first of all, against peaceful people; against the peaceful population,” Archbishop Shevchuk said.

He also said that his “heart was in anguish” for his diocese where “vicious battles are taking place in the suburbs.”

The cities of Irpin, Hostomel and Bucha, he said, “have become extensive and horrible battlefields” less than 10 miles from the center of Kyiv.

He also echoed calls made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Western leaders to declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine to prevent further Russian bombardments.

Both the Biden administration and NATO leaders have rejected enforcing a no-fly zone out of fears that it will expand the war outside of Ukraine.

“Today, we ask the world community: Close the sky over Ukraine!” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “Russian cruise missiles are today killing the peaceful population on our lands.”

Gaylord, Mich. – On the eve of his Episcopal Ordination and Installation as the Sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord, Bishop-elect Jeffrey J. Walsh professed his Catholic faith and swore an oath of fidelity to the pope and the Church.

Bishop-elect Walsh, along with several bishops from Michigan, participated in Solemn Vespers at Saint Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Gaylord on March 3, 2022.

During the ceremony, Bishop-elect Walsh stood before the altar, faced a crowd of family, friends and new parishioners, and publicly professed his fidelity to the Catholic Church and all of its teachings and his fidelity and loyalty to the Holy Father. The oath that is taken is canonically and morally binding on the Bishop.

The presider at the Solemn Vespers was the Most Reverend Walter A. Hurley, Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Gaylord. The Most Reverend Steven J. Raica, Bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham, Ala., served as homilist. Prior to his installation in Birmingham, Bishop Raica served as the Fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord.

“Today, we are honored to join together in prayer for you my dear brother, and we pray for an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your episcopal ministry,” Bishop Raica said during his homily.

In the coming months and years, Bishop Raica told Bishop-elect Walsh that he would face times of joy, anxiousness, difficulty and joy. Through it all, he emphasized, “You are not alone. Christ is with you. He promised he would be.”

Having served the Diocese of Gaylord from 2014 to 2020, Bishop Raica also spoke of the “spectacular beauty” of Michigan’s upper-lower peninsula, calling it a “glimpse of paradise.”

Bishop Raica ended his homily by thanking Bishop-elect Walsh for saying “yes” to God’s calling.

“Tonight and tomorrow and in the next months, you will meet many new friends of Christ, companions on the journey with you and you will be enriched in ways you never imagined through God’s providential grace. You will not be alone.”

Following the Concluding Prayer, Bishop-elect Walsh made brief remarks, expressing his gratitude for all those attending the Solemn Vespers.

“I can’t tell you how overwhelmed I feel with the sense of gratitude,” Bishop-elect Walsh said, referring to the many text messages, emails, phone calls and letters he has received since his appointment was announced in December 2021.

Reflecting on his Episcopal Motto, “Divine Providence,” Bishop-elect Walsh reminded those participating in the service in-person and via livestream that, “We are created to do the Father’s will.”

The bishop-elect added that he hopes the Grace of God will bless everyone who participates in his Installation and Ordination Mass.

“Everyone, I pray, will have their heart touched with the Holy Spirit, for whatever is important in your life, whatever you are struggling with or might need help with, I pray that this time together will be something that leads you closer to the mystery of God’s love and to what is the true nature of our celebration,” Bishop-elect Walsh said.

SCRANTON — For Ukrainian Catholics, the Holy Season of Lent began this past Monday under a massive dark cloud of destruction, desolation and death associated with all-out war — just a mere four days after their homeland was maliciously attacked by Russia.

Rev. Myron Myronyuk has served as pastor of Saint Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church in downtown Scranton for the past ten years, which happens to be as long it has been since he last visited those he left behind.

For the past week, more than ever, Father Myron’s heavy heart lies thousands of mile away as he – along with his congregation – agonize over the bitter suffering of their fellow countrymen and women. Included among those currently embattled by invading Russian forces are the priest’s 80-year-old mother, his sister, and a twin brother, who is a college professor in Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv after having served in the nation’s military for ten years.

Occasional calls to keep in touch with loved ones now occur daily.

“With the situation, I talk to my family every day and they let me know how they are managing and what is most needed,” the audibly shaken and exhausted Ukrainian churchman said, having endured days without sleep as he orchestrates incessant shipments of vital supplies for his besieged nation.

“They have nothing. They are in need of everything,” Father Myronyuk he told The Catholic Light in a late-night conversation earlier this week. He had just arrived back in his rectory after helping load 500 pounds of medical supplies to be shipped to a New Jersey agency, with the hopes of eventually reaching Ukraine through the generous support of the Polish government.

The pastor stated the civilian population has been hit especially hard, with the number of casualties reaching into the thousands and climbing each day. Most of country’s airports have also been destroyed, he indicated.

Father Myronyuk speaks for his parish and Ukrainian faithful everywhere in pleading for spiritual and material assistance.

“Monetary donations, medical and baby supplies and all types of non-perishable items are urgently need,” he noted while imploring his brothers and sisters in faith to offer fervent prayers for the Ukrainian people.

The day before the Diocese of Scranton joined the global Catholic Church in offering sacrifices of prayer and fasting on Ash Wednesday for an end to the Soviet aggression — at the behest of Pope Francis — Father Myronyuk urged, “I encourage everyone to keep praying and praying as you enter Lent.”

“We are doing are best and we let God do the rest,” the distraught priest said.

As a lifelong member of Saint Vladimir Church, Paul Ewasko remarked that since the hostile attacks began he has incredulously asked himself and his Ukrainian-born wife, Helen, “Is this really happening?”

“It all seems so unreal, yet I must fully accept it because it is real,” he said. “It is the kind of tragedy that occurred many years ago, not today.”

For Dr. Helen Chandoha Knott, a first generation Ukrainian-American, the images and news coming out her native land are reminiscent of her father and family fleeing Ukraine during World War II in the early 1940s.

“They walked for miles and took a train when they could until they came to a DP (displaced persons) camp in Germany,” she explained. “Eventually my father and his family came to America, but always stressed to us to never forget our Ukrainian culture and religious beliefs because it helps us to connect to our Ukrainian ancestors who always had to fight for basic freedoms that we in America take for granted every day.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Jean Stasyszyn Pedley, a longtime faithful member of Saint Vladimir’s, who recalled how her mother and father had to flee Ukraine because of Communist rule many years ago.

“They would be heartbroken over these events,” she said. “But over the past few days of horror, I’ve been reminded of what is good in the world — that there are people in this community ready to help strangers.”

Pedley added, “The people of Ukraine with their deep faith in God and the Blessed Mother are inspiring all of us to do better, to be better. The outpouring of prayer and support, both financial and emotional, have been overwhelming. But as always God’s hand is guiding us.”

“The cruel and evil invasion just doesn’t fit in today’s world, or does it?” Ewasko passionately concluded. “As a Ukrainian Catholic, I look to Jesus and His Mother Mary who are real and who will see us through. Ukraine forever!”