Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia has made more than 10 pastoral trips to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on 24 February 2022, offering pastoral care and solidarity to a suffering people. As the fourth year of the war begins, the archbishop shares experiences he had last autumn among the communities along the front in eastern and southern Ukraine with ONE magazine. Read an excerpt here, then read the full article.
This war has also given me a better understanding of my parents. My mother’s older sister died in 1945 in the anti-Soviet resistance of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. My father, as a teenager, fled the country, leaving behind his parents, who had buried eight children and later saw their ninth deported to Siberia. As refugees, my mother and father witnessed atrocities, witnessed the Holocaust. My aunt, who later lived in Queens, New York, helped to carry water so families could wash and identify the bodies of those tortured in a Soviet prison in Zolochiv. Growing up, my parents told me all these stories, but I had not fully grasped them. Raised in the comfort of suburban America in the ’60s and ’70s, my imagination could not register such barbarity. But now, having seen war so closely, having looked into the eyes of those who lost their homes and their loved ones, I feel I understand better.
And I know there is hope.
My parents’ generation survived. They studied, started families, raised children and nurtured community life. Yes, they were marked by trauma, which was at times evident in addiction, conflict or aggression. But, with the grace of God and the community of the church, their lives bore much fruit. Faith and community provided fortitude. Commonality of purpose served as a foundation for resilience.
Those same virtues are what I saw in Ukraine, close to the war. I saw a great love for life. The people near the front want to live and want to prevail. They cannot afford to lose, to live under occupation or to have their hope taken away. I saw the authenticity of human experience and the power of community. And I hope to share something of this power here in the United States, where we can sometimes lose hope as we see our communities decline in the face of many challenges.