A conversation with the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine who spent the holiday in the city hit by Russian attacks
Svitlana Dukhovych – Vatican City
Your Excellency, you spent Christmas with the Catholic community of Kharkiv, one of the cities most affected by the Russian attacks. Now for Easter he went to Zaporizhzhia, another city that is bombed almost every day. Is it a coincidence, or is it your choice to celebrate the most significant holidays with those who are under constant danger of their lives?
Yes, it is a choice, a choice that is already important for myself because to pray during these important holidays like Christmas and Easter, I truly want to pray above all with the people who look at the prayer with yearning, with an outburst of spirit absolutely absolute, because they don’t have another chance, no one will save them, so strong is the terror of war. And I know that even for the Catholics of these areas close to the military front it is significant that we are together with them. Also because less humanitarian aid arrives in Zaporizhzhia, in Kherson, but also in Kharkiv. For example, Catholic organizations are also very active here and receive, among other things, the support of the Holy Father himself through his Almoner, Cardinal Krajewski. So, for me it is also a way to experience first-hand how this help arrives, how it is distributed. I could also see the amount of people who need help even in a city like this Zaporizhzhia, and I saw in the eyes of the people who receive a piece of bread and something to accompany the bread: they are truly grateful because they have nothing. And since many of them have lost their jobs because the factories are not working due to the war and therefore the number of people who need this help is growing. So it’s important to me and I think even more important to the Catholics who live here.
How were the Easter celebrations? Who have you met and what is the atmosphere like in Zaporizhzhia and, in particular, among Catholics?
I also met the Greek Catholic community, but only briefly because Easter for them will arrive later, in May. So I dedicated more moments of prayer to the Roman Catholics and they were very lively celebrations, very thoughtful because there is precisely no other support that could be needed. And therefore for them Easter becomes even more important than in lands where there is peace, because in times of war there is a great risk of falling into human desperation, even psychological because the brutality and difficulties are many. There are even misunderstandings because, for example, I have also met volunteers from various territories and they say that in their lands the understanding is sometimes not correct, it is conveyed by propaganda. And they arrive here and find a different reality, much more touching, much more experienced and then they want to return to Ukraine because they see that political propaganda sometimes forgets these needs, focuses on the smallest things that cannot be seen and does not see the most important. And I was very satisfied with the way in which we were able to pray together: in a way in which we truly desire that the Lord be our light, that in everything He be our Resurrection, that He be our peace.
I wanted to ask you if there was any passage in the Easter celebrations that seemed more appropriate to the current situation experienced by the people there?
For me personally, the initial moment of the Easter Vigil was very touching and since the ritual begins with the lights turned off. This darkness truly evokes the war and therefore only one light remains lit – the Paschal candle, Jesus shining in the darkness. For me this was the truly touching moment, because it makes it clear that war was invented by men who dare, give various reasons to attack others, without asking the Lord who is the Creator. However, the light of Christ remains lit among us.
Not a day goes by without attacks on Ukrainian cities and villages, resulting in both the death of people and the destruction of infrastructure. Not to mention the loss of life at the front. Death weighs on the country. In this situation, what meaning do the words: “Christ is risen” have?
These words on the resurrection of Jesus have a very important meaning, I would say much more important than in lands of peace also because life sooner or later will end due to war or not war and there remains, even in the midst of war, this light that no one can turn it off, no one is capable of taking it away from us. So it is precisely Jesus who is our certainty, the foundation, even our hope, because other hopes are practically non-existent. So it is the fundamental meaning and it is understood very clearly in war lands like this. For example, very close to the Roman Catholic cathedral of Zaporizhzhia, a gentleman I knew is buried: the lawyer Denys Tarasov who was even part of the technical committee of the Holy Father’s initiative “The Pope for Ukraine”. So before the Russian attack [ndr. su larga scala], he dealt with humanitarian issues, then the war forced him to defend his country and he lost his life. So before I knew him while he was alive, now I know his tomb and other people like that… But even when one loses one’s life in an unjust, aggressive way, the resurrection remains, so it is an even more touching foundation precisely in the era of war.
Pope Francis during his Urbi et Orbi message made a call for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for all. You are personally very committed to the cause of prisoner exchange. In your opinion, what significance does this appeal from the Holy Father have?
We listened to this appeal from the Holy Father with great satisfaction, I cannot say, because satisfaction will come if there is an effect, but with great attention and truly in spiritual union, because here too for me being in the land of Zaporizhzhia also means being in the land where we are closer to the lives of many prisoners. For me it would be an even greater Easter if I could go and visit the prisoners. And when the Pope makes the appeal for a total exchange of all prisoners, this is not a simple appeal, but it is an appeal that concerns many lives, several thousand people who not only do not have the possibility of celebrating the Easter, including the two Greek Catholic priests who were taken here from Berdiansk which is not that far from Zaporizhzhia, because it is the same region. So my thoughts here are even more intense with them and for them: for these priests there is not even the possibility of celebrating Easter. So it is a truly very humanitarian appeal with which the Pope addresses all believers and non-believers, it is also the appeal to pray for the Lord to open the hearts of those who are politically responsible to really convey these exchanges of prisoners. Here I would also add the words that the Holy Father said during the Via Crucis on Good Friday, saying that being in lands far from the war, sometimes there is the risk of not crying together with Jesus and thinking about the war from afar. And precisely this appeal, expressed by the Holy Father today, on Easter Sunday, is a way of being close, truly taking a concrete interest in those who suffer the most and those who suffer the most are them: the prisoners, the wounded and those who lose their lives in this terrible war.
Your Excellency, you said that it would be an even greater Easter for you if you could go and visit the prisoners. What did he mean?
Certainly, my greatest desire remains to be able to personally visit the prisoners, those I cannot visit. Here in Ukraine I am able to visit, I have in fact managed to visit the Russian prisoners who are held here. Instead, I know that my colleague in Russia is unable to visit the Ukrainian prisoners and none of the representatives of the Church are able to visit them, not even visit the Greek Catholic priests. This is a very heavy burden for me: knowing that people are in such difficult conditions and even the commandment of Jesus – go and visit your brother who is in prison – it is simply not possible to fulfill it. And then in what conditions do they remain? Many freed and exchanged former prisoners have told me that this is the greatest struggle: losing trust, losing hope, losing faith. So I know that for them faith is almost the only thing that remains, but they would also like to touch this faith, to encourage it, because otherwise their suffering remains immense and instead there is no possibility of visiting them.
