WARSAW, Poland — Priests are on the frontlines of Ukraine’s war battles — both physical and spiritual. Armored with faith, they bring prayer, supplies and hope to their communities.
“Now is probably the most difficult time,” Father Wojciech Stasiewicz said. “The stress is mounting. Everyone has experienced something difficult during this war — if not the loss of a loved one, then some kind of destruction — material or moral,” the director of Religious Mission of Caritas-Spes in the eastern Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia said.
“The main challenge facing the (priests) here is simply presence,” Father Stasiewicz said as Ukraine faces the fourth year of war. “None of us prepared for war. And none of us knows in the morning what his day will look like.”
He said that one day he goes “to the hospital to wounded soldiers, the next to a bombed-out village, the next we conduct classes for children in shelters. And sometimes a single person comes to talk and cries. Or a soldier who, having returned from the front, is shedding the burden of many weeks. Tears, confession and finally a request: ‘Father, can I have a hug?’ These people need to be cuddled in their pain,” he said.
In carrying crosses, however, they are not alone. Polish Father Leszek Kryza, who has been visiting the war-ravaged areas regularly since the beginning of the invasion, coordinating humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Polish bishops’ conference, emphasizes mutual support within the church.
“It’s a whole army of priests, religious sisters and brothers, volunteers,” Father Kryza said. “They are there with these people, doing everything to reach them. Often these are places where, apart from Churchmen, no one reaches,” the Polish priest added.
Father Stasiewicz, who is also Polish, has served in Ukraine, his second home, since 2006 — coming to Kharkiv 10 years later.
“This war triggers certain mechanisms in all of us,” Father Stasiewicz said. “We want to survive and be safe. When there is silence, it makes us anxious — as if something is missing. If there hasn’t been a missile strike today, we know that it could happen any moment now — and this anticipation is very difficult.”
During the first two years of the Russian invasion, Ukraine received more than $380 billion in foreign aid, including $118 billion in military aid.
The Catholic Church is on the forefront of humanitarian aid.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest organization of Catholic men, has collected over $24 million in contributions from over 68,300 donors. The Church in Poland provided 45 transports of humanitarian aid, with Caritas Poland helping 2 million Ukrainians. Caritas Spes Ukraine delived 5,000 tons of supplies since the start of the war in Ukraine, amid an ocean of other forms of help.
Father Kryza recalled the words of Pope Francis, who said that war is always a defeat.
“But where there is evil, good is always born,” said Father Kryza, who has visited Ukraine 30 times since February 2022, including visits to the frontline zones.
