Appeal of the Catholic Bishops of Ukraine

Going through homilies from Lents past, I came upon this post, which happened to date from shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago. The Ukrainian resistance to that invasion, I noted, was something of a jolt to a West that had grown somnolent with self-indulgence, a reminder that some things are worth fighting for.

Just over a week ago, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevhcuk issued a statement on behalf of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic bishops that should again jolt the conscience of a world gone loopy with self-absorption. “We have not become a people defined by war — we have become a people defined by sacrifice,” the bishops write. For the bishops and for their people, this war is not a card game or great television, not, as the Vice-President of the United States to his great shame recently suggested, a “propaganda tour.”

Noting the staggering trauma and destruction inflicted on their country, the bishops write: “But we have not come to terms with our losses—each one hurts. Every fallen defender, every innocent life lost remains in the memory of God and people. We remember and pray. We support and uphold. We stand and fight, ever mindful of the God-given dignity that no force on earth can take from us.”

It is obvious enough that the bishops want peace, but they also know that “peace” on Putin’s terms does not mean the end of killing Ukrainians, of kidnappings, or of brutality. The bishops know that Russian occupation will almost certainly include the persecution of Catholics; Archbishop Schevchuk was himself targeted for assassination by Russian invaders attacking Kyiv. No serious Christian should be taken in by Vladimir Putin’s pose as a defender of Christian values. His regime and its ideology are idolatrous.

There was a time — within living memory — when Americans, too, believed that human dignity was worth fighting for, when Presidents of both parties, from Kennedy to Reagan, stood up to evil instead of flattering it — when the stars and stripes stood for freedom and decency. The increasingly hysterical soundbites on FoxNews notwithstanding, serious assessments of the state of the war hardly support handing Putin a win at this point. Doing so is certainly not in America’s interests. Despite wishy-washy allies, Ukraine is clearly capable of endurance.

The Ukrainian bishops are far greater realists than Washington’s feckless politicians — who have so blatantly put their own careers and egos first and America a distant second — when they write, “An unjust truce is a criminal mockery that will only lead to greater injustice and suffering.” The promise of magic diplomacy that will bring an end to the war in a single day — in 24 hours! — is a dream based in bombast, not reality. Illusion is not hope.

Realism means recognizing that lasting peace does not come from brandishing a piece of paper with a dictator’s signature on it, that bullies are emboldened before weakness, and that defeating evil requires sacrifice, endurance, and faith. In an age of such fecklessness, we need the message of Ukraine’s brave bishops:

“To the world, we proclaim: Ukrainians believe in the triumph of God’s truth. Even amidst sorrow and ruin, we remain a people of hope. We believe in the Resurrection, for we know: God is with us—with the persecuted, the oppressed, the mourning, and the suffering. In Him, we place all our trust. And so, we stand, we fight, we pray.”