Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Ukrainians Endure and Religious Ministry Continues

February 23, 2023

Basil Knutazev stands in front of his apartment building in Irpin, Ukraine, that was destroyed by Russian artillery in the early days of the invasion. All the residents had evacuated and nobody was injured in the shelling.

Dominican Sisters at Mukachevo, Ukraine

~ by Chris Herlinger, Global Sisters Report

“We lost everything”: It’s a sentiment shared by millions of Ukrainians uprooted and displaced during a year of war condemned by much of the world that has transformed the face of Europe, increased international tensions and caused ripples in the global economy.

“Life has changed not just for Ukraine, but the whole world,” said Sr. Yanuariya Isyk, a member of the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great whose ministry is based in Kyiv. “We’re living a new life now. It can’t be the same as it was before the war. Life will never be the same again.”

The new reality is one of displacement and confusion, loss and death. Hospitals, schools and neighborhoods have been targeted in particularly brutal acts that have outraged the world. The United Nations says more than 7,000 civilians, including more than 400 children, have died because of the war, and more than 11,700 have been injured.

Even in locales far from the front, life is always on edge, with blackouts and electrical outages – Russia has targeted the country’s power grid – and air-raid sirens interrupting the afternoon idyll.

Yet, Ukrainians also speak of a renewed unity, solidarity and hope. In a country that has become one big conflict zone, the war has galvanized religious communities to open their doors to those who have been displaced and to lead various humanitarian missions.

“We’ve had to think less of ourselves and more about everybody else,” Sr. Isyk said in an interview in the small apartment monastery she share with two other sisters in a building damaged when Russian saboteurs engaged with Ukrainian forces early in the war.

The Sisters teach school to Ukrainian children. Though her work in Christian education in Kyiv remains paramount, Isyk has coordinated deliveries of food – flour, pasta, canned fish and meat, rice, and milk and medical supplies to those in need.

“Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have experience a long, difficult and painful year of Lent. Every Ukrainian has suffered during this year one way or another,” said Sr. Anna Andrusiv, of the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil.

There is no sign that the war will end soon. Earlier this month, people spoke of bracing for the worse, with many fearing a new Russian onslaught from the north.

And even amid such uncertainty, the ministries continue.

“The things people don’t understand is that Putin and Russia will not give us a real peace,” Sr. Andrusiv said. “If they give us two years, they will come back and kill. That will not be a real peace. We know there are good people in Russia who want peace. But, they aren’t in the majority.”

Ukraine is fighting a battle against tyranny in a war that has implications far beyond the borders of Ukraine, Sr. Andrusiv said. Our people are dying to protect the world.”
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Pope Francis: ‘I am ready to go to Moscow’ to end the war in Ukraine

May 5, 2022

Pope Francis greets the crowd during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican April 27, 2022. (CNS photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)

~ by Gerard O’Connell, AMERICA

Pope Francis is deeply concerned that the war in Ukraine shows no signs of slowing and said he is ready to go to Moscow to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in attempt to bring it to an end. He revealed in an interview with Corriere della Sera, the leading Italian daily, that he let the Russian leader know this 20 days after the war started, but said that he has not yet received a reply from him.

In the interview, Francis recalled that “on the first day of the war I called the Ukrainian President Zelensky by phone, but I did not call Putin. I had spoken with him in December, but this time no. I did not call him.” Instead, he said, I wished to make a clear gesture that the whole world could see, and for this reason I went to the Russian ambassador. I asked him to explain to me [the reason for the war]. I told him, ‘Please stop [the war[.’ Then, after 20 days of war, I asked Cardinal Parolin to get the message to Putin that I am ready to go to Moscow.”

“Certainly, it is necessary that the leader of the Kremlin should open a window (for this to happen), but we have not yet received an answer,” Pope Francis said. “But we continue insisting, even though I fear that Putin cannot and does not wish to have this encounter at this moment. But how can one not stop such brutality?”

Asked whether it was right for Western countries to send so much weaponry to Ukraine, Francis said he “was too far away (from the war)” to respond to this question. But, he remarked, “one thing is clear they are trying out new weapons” in this conflict. Moreover, “the Russians now know that tanks are of little use and so are thinking of other things,” perhaps alluding to the supersonic missiles or nuclear weapons that the Kremlin has publicly threatened it could use.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has also invited Francis to come to Kyiv, but Francis feels the moment is not right. “I feel that I should not go (now). I must first go to Moscow. I must first meet Putin,” he said. “I am a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin opens the door…”

Pope Francis described the Ukrainians as “a proud people” that “paid a heavy price” during World War II, and that today are a “martyred people, with many who have died.”

War in Ukraine Contributes to Global Hunger

April 21, 2022

~ by Chris Herlinger, Global Sisters Report

In an issue of import to religious sisters and the wider church, Baltimore based Catholic Relief Services has warned that the war in Ukraine is having serious effects on global hunger.

During recent congressional testimony about eh pending U.S. Farm Bill, Bill O’Keefe, Catholic Relief Services’ Executive Vice-President for Mission, Mobilization and Advocacy, said the war is compounding already-existing problems.

“After decades of progress, global hunger has steadily risen for seven consecutive years. The ‘three Cs’ – conflict, climate change and COVID-19 – are exacerbating chronic and severe food insecurity for people living in highly vulnerable and fragile contexts,” O’Keefe said. “We at CRS are not the hyperbolic type, but we are extremely concerned.”

O’Keefe told the panel that the Ukraine conflict “is having an undeniable impact on the state of global food security within Ukraine and around the world.”

Noting that Ukraine is a top exporter of wheat and sunflower oil, countries in north and east Africa and the Middle East “are already feeling the effects of food price spikes and global supply shortages,” said O’Keefe.

“Countries on the brink of famine, like South Sudan, Yemen and in the Horn of Africa, are particularly vulnerable to the worsening impacts of the ongoing war in Ukraine. While there is great uncertainty as to how significantly food prices and availability will be impacted over the next four to six months, it is clear that the worst is yet to come,” noted O’Keefe.

Pope Francis opens Holy Week with call for Easter Truce

April 13, 2022

~ Associated Press

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis opened Holy week on April 10 with a call for an Easter truce in Ukraine to make room for a negotiated peace, highlighting the need for leaders to “make some sacrifices for the good of the people.”

Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass before crowds in St. Peter’s Square for the first time since the pandemic, Francis called for “weapons to be laid down to begin an Easter truce, not to reload weapons and resume fighting, no! A truce to reach peace through real negotiations.”

Francis did not refer directly to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the reference was clear, and he has repeatedly denounced the war and the suffering brought to innocent civilians.

During his Palm Sunday homily, the pontiff denounced “the folly of war” that leads people to commit “senseless acts of cruelty. When we resort to violence…we lose sight of why we are in the world. We see in this folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time.”

Chaos in Shelters for Ukrainian Refugees Increases the Risk of Human Trafficking

March 31, 2022

~ Elisabeth Auvillain for Global Sisters Report (GSR)

Sr. Imelda Poole has been fighting human trafficking for years and now is increasingly worried about the situation in Ukraine.

“There has been an explosion of child trafficking in the world in recent years because of increasing poverty,” she told GSR. “And now, the risks are enormous in Ukraine because war situations make it easier for international and local gangs to find prey.”

Poole is a member of the Loreto Sisters and President of Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation (RENATE), a non-governmental organization that combats human trafficking in 31 European countries.

Millions of Ukrainians have left their homes, fleeing bombings and destruction. After a month of fighting, about 3 million of them have crossed the borders, mostly into Poland. About as many have been displaced within their country, going west where the fighting has been less intense. Thousands are waiting in underground shelters, hoping for a ride to safety as soon as possible.

“The situation is dire in shelters. Food is scarce. Hygiene is very bad. Such chaos is welcomed by gangs of traffickers, who prey on the most vulnerable: isolated children or young people,” said Poole.

It did not take long for gangs, local as well as international, to mingle in the crowd and offer false promises of help. Traffickers know refugees are desperate to go to a safer place. They are quick to offer a ride over the border to people who are desperate to leave. This is where the danger lies.

Soon after the war broke out, humanitarian aid agencies started to distribute leaflets to refugees gathered in shelters to warn them of human trafficking. The paper tells refugees what to do before agreeing to a ride to the border with Poland or Romania, the two main countries where Ukrainians seek refuge, along with Hungary and
Slovakia.

“Never hand out your passport to someone who promises you a ride. Take a picture of the license plate of the van you get on and tell someone that you are going in it and where you are going” are some of the tips printed on the leaflets. If offered accommodations, make sure to tell someone you know, where you are. Aid workers also watch out for people acting in a suspicious manner and report them to the police.

“Drug trafficking doesn’t bring as much money as it used to. Arms trafficking is also not so lucrative anymore, so traffickers are now focusing on human trafficking,” said Sr. Poole.

“Children are bought online,” she added, “they become sex slaves or are forced to work for free.”

“The world is demanding cheap labor, cheap sex. Traffickers know that wars give them opportunities. Their only aim is greed; they have absolutely no ethics. And criminals often get away with it,” she said.

Caritas Internationalis and other humanitarian groups present in Ukraine have joined forces to help refugees. The situation in Ukraine is chaotic, and UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund, is also warning about people eager to help, saying that rules have to be followed to protect children.

“There is real chaos in humanitarian refugee centers with volunteers who are not under the auspices of any qualified agency. They just wear a badge and a yellow vest and they are seen as volunteers. This is irresponsible,” said Alice Barbe, a spokeswoman for Corridor Citoyen, to ensure safe passage to France. To read the complete account please click here To access the MSC Corporate Stance and information on Trafficking please click here and here

Nuns in Ukraine Rescue, Escort, Stranded Foreign Students

March 10, 2022

~ Thomas Scaria, Global Sisters Report

An Indian Catholic nun and her associates are working round-the-clock to help stranded students and others fleeing war-torn Ukraine.

“God is using me to save people from death in Ukraine,” said Sr. Ligi Payyappilly, the 48-year-old superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint-Marc in Mukachevo, Ukraine.

Payyappilly, and 17 sisters of her congregation are giving shelter and food to the distressed students besides helping them cross the Ukrainian border to escape to countries including Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

“Being in Ukraine for over 20 years, I have a lot of contacts and networks that helped me carry out this mission so far,” Payyappilly told Global Sisters Report, just before her scheduled two-hour sleep. Her convent in Mukachevo in western Ukraine is some 480 miles southwest of the national capital of Kiev.

People helped by Payyappilly’s team profusely thanked the nuns.

“We never thought we would be alive now,” said Vignesh Suresh, a third-year student of medicine who hails Payyappilly as “God’s angel who came to help us when we were totally lost.”

Suresh said he and 45 other Indian students were stranded at the Polish border for 15 hours when Payyappilly’ and Sr. Christine Tymurzhina, a Ukrainian, came to helpo them.

“The sisters took us to their convent in their vehicles, hugged each of us with their love and warmth, gave us food, a warm hall to sleep in and escorted us in the morning to cross the Romania border,” Suresh said as his friends slept on the train.

Payyappilly said Suresh was among about 1,000 foreign students her convent has helped so far.

She said most students reached them in a desperate state. “They had not bathed for many days or eaten food. They were mentally shocked and physically weak. So our first priority was to give them a comfortable stay before taking them to the border,” Payyappilly said.

Payyappilly said the sisters are flood with phone calls from panicked parents after a Catholic website in Kerala published information about their services.

Payyappilly said once the people cross the border safely, they consider the mission accomplished and look for other lost ones in Ukraine.
To read the complete account please click here

Sisters in Ukraine Navigate ‘a time full of terror’

March 10, 2022

~ by Dan Stockman and Chris Herlinger, Global Sisters Report

Catholic sisters in western Ukraine are safe, wrote Sr. Anna Andrusiv of the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great though life in the border city of Lviv is reapdily changing because of the mass exodus of people from Ukraine.

“All the sisters are fine here in the monastery” in Lviv, the congregation’s main convent in Ukraine that is home to nearly 30 sisters.

Two other sisters remain safely in the city of Zaporizhia in the east, near Crimea, which has been the scene of years of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels.

Prayer for an end to the hostilities continue both day and night, Andrusiv wrote.

“Our soldiers say that our prayers help them,” wrote Andrusiv, adding that Ukrainians believer that ultimately, victory will be theirs.

“We will never give up, we will win!” she wrote. “I’m more that sure about it. God is with us. With His people.”

Leaders of a congregation with a long history in Ukraine, which asked not to be identified because of fear of retaliation from the Russians have been sending updates to the International Union of Superiors General [12] that the organization has posted to its website

Sisters in Croatia, Poland and Romania are ready to take in sisters from this community in Ukraine if they are forced to leave.

“Sisters in Kyiv live in rather dangerous circumstances, but they have written that they are well,” the update said.

Mother Marcela Runcan, General Superior of the Basilian Sisters, wrote in a March 1 letter to the congregation’s sisters in Ukraine that the entire order is praying for them.

“War, hatred and murder are obvious and bold-faced expressions of evil. Evil is a devastating force that destroys life, relationships and the soul,” Runcan wrote. “Dear Sisters, let us continue our prayers for peace. This is a time full of terror, blood, tears and cruelty but it is already clear how courage, love, mercy, truth, mutual aid and kindness are manifested as bright lights in the darkness…Spiritual giants are born in the greatest of trials. Even at this time, the night of Gethsemane, and perhaps, Golgotha, the Lord leads us to the resurrection.”

‘Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine.’

March 10, 2022

‘Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine.’
~ Gerard O’Connell, AMERICA Magazine

“Rivers of blood and of tears are flowing in Ukraine,” Pope Francis said on March 6 as he made a passionate and robust appeal for an end to the war in Ukraine that has now entered its 13th day. He called for a stop to the armed attacks in the country, and for negotiations and good sense to prevail. He appealed for a return to the respect of international law, which has been broken by the invasion of the country by Russian forces.

“Above all else, I implore that the armed attacks stop, that negotiations prevail, and that good sense also prevails, and that there be a return to respect the international law,” he said in a heartfelt and emotion-packed appeal that drew strong applause from the thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square this Sunday, March 6th.

He appealed too for “the true securing” and guaranteeing of “humanitarian corridors” and for making vital aid available to the populations of the cities and towns under siege by the Russian forces that, as reports show, lack food, water, and electricity, and who are living in fear.

Significantly, he added that in Ukraine today “one is not dealing with a military operation only, but with war that sows death, destruction and misery.” By stating his categorically, the Pope has called out the big lie being propagated by President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin authorities who continue to insist that what is happening in the Ukraine is “a military operation” not an invasion of a sovereign state and a war. Journalists or people who state otherwise in Russia now risk heavy penalties following legislation passed in the Duma, the Russian parliament, last Friday.

“The victims are ever more numerous, as are the people in flight, especially mothers and children,” Francis stated, referring to the thousands being killed and wounded, and the more than 1.5 million people who, according to the United Nations, have already fled the war in the country and become refugees in neighboring European states.

“In that martyred country there grows hour by hour the necessity of humanitarian assistance, the Pope said.

Aware that these [people are living] mostly in bomb-shelters and to a large extent lack food, water and medical supplies, Pope Francis asked that “there be guaranteed and facilitated the access to aid for the besieged people so as to offer vital help to our brothers and sisters who are oppressed by the bombs and fear.” To read the entire article please click here

Papal Pleas for Peace: Even if unheeded, Pope Francis continues tradition

March 2, 2022

A Ukrainian residing in Japan shows a placard during a protest rally denouncing Russia over its actions in Ukraine, near the Russian Embassy in Tokyo Feb. 23, 2022. Pope Francis expressed “great sorrow” over the situation in Ukraine and called on Christians to observe a day of prayer and fasting for peace on Ash Wednesday, March 2. (CNS photo/Issei Kato, Reuters)

~ by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis knows his appeals for an end to the war in Ukraine carry little weight with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he also knows he has an obligation to continue speaking out and rallying others to join him in praying for peace.

In April 2021 – 10 months before Putin invaded Ukraine – the Pope expressed his concerns about a buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border and an escalation in the fighting between Ukrainian and Russian-backed separatists in Easter Ukraine.

He did the same in December, in January and repeatedly in February as it seemed Putin was serious about launching an offensive.

Emphasizing the seriousness of his concern, Pope Francis did not summon the Russian ambassador to the Holy See, but instead went in person to the embassy on February 25.

One week before Putin launched the invasion, Pope Francis told members of the Congregation for Eastern Churches – including Eastern Catholic leaders from Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and Ethiopia – that too often “the warnings of both popes and men and women of goodwill are unheard.”

Humanity, he said, seems to have “an attachment to war, and this is tragic.”

Still, Pope Francis noted, modern popes, beginning with Pope Benedict XV before World War I, have tried to appeal to consciences and to warn of the “useless slaughter” and the unforeseen consequences of going to war.

Papal appeals for peace and dialogue always look first to the impact violence and war will have on civilians, especially the elderly and children. In military calculations, they are “collateral damage,” but as Pope Francis noted on February 27, they are always the first victims of conflict.

The most thorough papal examination of the folly of war to date is “Pacem in Terris,” published in 1963 by Pope St. John XXIII.

In June, the Vatican publishing house released “Peace on Earth: Fraternity is Possible,” a collection of Pope Francis’ words and speeches on the importance of praying and working for peace.

“We can no longer think of war as a solution because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposes benefits, one of the main criteria of just-war theory, he wrote in the document. “In view of this, it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war.’ Never again war!
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