Vatican News last week carried a story from Kharkiv, the city in northern Ukraine which is again facing massive bombardment, in response to the successful attack by Ukrainian forces on Russian air force equipment a couple of weeks ago.
The story is based on an interview with Roman Catholic Bishop, Pavlo Honcharuk, who has chosen to stay close to his people since the invasion began in 2022.
“The Russian army,” the Bishop reminds us, “is bombing civilian homes. People often don’t expect such massive threats and don’t always have time to get to shelters. It’s very dangerous near the frontlines due to guided aerial bombs, which penetrate deeply. A crater from such a bomb can reach eight meters deep and 30 meters wide. If it hits a house, nothing remains — not the structure, nor anyone inside.…. After every explosion, hundreds of homes are left without windows. If that happens during the cold season, homes become uninhabitable. Many have been displaced. People have lost everything.”
He also talks about the psychological and spiritual impact on Ukrainian soldiers who are trying to defend their homeland, and how often they want to come and talk with a priest – not only about the physical strain and grief at the loss of comrades, but about the “wounded humanity” that they witness every day, and their own wounded souls as they have been forced to take up arms.
“The Church,” he tells us, “is alive. It lives because the people are the Church — not just the priests. The Church is all of us, the baptized. And today, in Ukraine, the Church stands with the people. The Church is present in our soldiers, in our volunteers, in doctors and healthcare workers. The Church is in our parishes, in our streets.”
It is very moving article and is helpful to those of us who want to pray for Ukraine, and keep in our minds the reality of a life under attack that its people are going through.
Read the article here.
Picture above of Bishop, Pavlo Honcharuk, by Youri melnik – Youri melnik, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98944945