Death is close; Jesus and his love are closer, say clergy in Ukraine war zone

Amid the ravages of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the human heart finds its home in God and in communion with others, said two Catholic clergy from Ukraine’s embattled east at an annual three-day cultural event in New York City.

Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, Ukraine, and Father Wojciech Stasiewicz, director of Religious Mission of Caritas-Spes in the same eastern Ukrainian diocese, shared their insights during New York Encounter, which took place Feb. 13-15 at the city’s Metropolitan Pavilion.

Since 2009, the multifaceted gathering — organized by Communion and Liberation, a Vatican-recognized ecclesial movement — has combined panel discussions, artistic performances and exhibits centered on a specific theme. For 2026, the theme was “Where ‘everything is waiting for you.'”

Ahead of the event opening, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin sent a message on behalf of Pope Leo XIV to Maurizio Maniscalco, president of New York Encounter, saying the pope was “encouraged by the conference’s timely theme” and its “focus on the deep desire of all people to find a place where they truly belong.”

During the Feb. 14 panel discussion “A Home in the Storm,” moderated by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, both Bishop Honcharuk and Father Stasiewicz spoke of the searing attacks not only on human life and society, but on the soul itself, as Russia’s war against Ukraine — initiated in 2014, and accelerated by full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022 — now approaches the 12-year mark.

Asked to describe the reality of life in his pastoral area, Bishop Honcharuk– speaking in Polish through an English interpreter — said it was “drastic.”

“What we can do, we do. And we count on help,” he said, adding that participating in the panel discussion was a means of sending the world “a signal, an SOS” that “we believe … will be received seriously.”

He noted that roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) of his diocese’s 120,000 square miles (193,000 square kilometers) is a war zone, with refugees — children and elderly alike — carrying “within themselves the the experience of a great loss” with their homes and towns “all destroyed.”

Lacking heat due to Russia’s targeted attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainians must survive as temperatures plunge to -9 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius), he said, while “over our heads, we hear all the time rockets and drones.”

“In a sense, we’re always expecting or waiting for death,” Bishop Honcharuk said.

Yet “in the midst of all that, we are trying to be able to love and to help others,” he said.

Father Stasiewicz said that his Caritas-Spes workers have told him they “survive every day” thanks to “faith,” “praying to God,” and a common commitment to supporting those around them.

“Every parish, every priest … helps in whichever way they can to (meet) the needs … that they see in front of them,” he said, also speaking in Polish through an English interpreter.

Both he and Bishop Honcharuk affirmed that a profound commitment to both the Lord Jesus Christ and their fellow human beings keeps them in Ukraine as the war grinds on.

“I cannot leave, because Christ is with those people who stay, and I’ve got to be there where Christ is,” explained Bishop Honcharuk. “Love for Christ makes us want to stay.”

The bishop noted that should they be forced to leave, it will be on “the last train” out.

“You don’t think about yourself anymore; you think about the people who are in front of you,” he said regarding the risks they have consented to. “Our life is in the hands of God.”

At Caritas-Spes, “we start every day with a prayer,” typically the Our Father, said Father Stasiewicz, with the text of the Lord’s Prayer posted on the wall at his agency’s offices.

He added, “We can give witness that God is with us. And now matter how big, how large is the power of evil that we can see in front of our eyes, we even more so … see how God is giving us good, and God’s good is greater.”

Both war and peace alike trace back to the human heart, said Bishop Honcharuk.

Peace is found “in the encounter of the person with God,” he said, but “when God is rejected, ignored — war begins first in your heart, and then it comes outside.”

Father Stasiewicz stressed that the “first help” he and the Caritas-Spes team provide to those they serve is “to listen to their stories.”

He recalled that while assisting those sheltering in a metro station during an attack, an individual asked him, “Father, where is God?”

Before he could answer, a Caritas-Spes volunteer said, “God is here … in this help. We are here and God is with us.”

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