The war in Ukraine has been going on for over a year. Many people in Ireland are doing what they can to support the Ukrainian people, offering hospitality and all kinds of assistance. At the World Youth Day in Portugal, the war in Ukraine was one of the first things Pope Francis talked about. In his speech to the Authorities, Civil Society
and the Diplomatic Corps (2nd August). He used the image of Portugal as a sea faring nation, referred to the Lisbon Treaty of 2007 and in offering some stimulating interrogatives addressed the continent of Europe, saying, “Where are you sailing, if you are not showing the world paths of peace, creative ways for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine and to the many other conflicts causing so much bloodshed?”
Hi sentiments were echoed shortly afterwards by Cardinale Stanisław Dziwisz, the Pope’s special envoy to the 15th August centenary of “Our Lady Queen of Podlasie” in Poland, who underlined that we cannot accept what is happening in Europe, before the eyes of the whole world, because a tragedy “is depriving our brothers and sisters in Ukraine of their land, their right to life, their language and culture, sowing death and destruction”. He said, “We need to put an end to hatred, violence, fratricidal war”.
In the meantime the people of Ukraine continue to suffer. Last year in her State of the Union address, Ursula Von Leyden said, “Today – courage has a name, and that name is Ukraine”. We know this from the news we receive from the Focolare Community there. Mira Milavec, one of its members who works for the Ukrainian Caritas
Organization, recently told us, “The communities of the Movement are located in the western and central part of Ukraine, but despite being far from the combat zones, they are involved in the tragedy of Russian aggression because many of their relatives, fathers, husbands, sons and friends, either as volunteers or because they have been called up by army, are at the front. Some have died or are missing, some have been taken prisoner. We suffer a lot, we pray, we try to help, we experience the support of our faith and of our community and that of our worldwide family”.
Let’s continue to Stand with Ukraine, keeping its people in our thoughts, prayers and solidarity.
