U.S. Catholics help ‘heal the wounds of war’ in Ukraine through fund

PHILADELPHIA (OSV News) — Catholic bishops and faithful in the U.S. are helping to heal broken bodies, minds and spirits in Ukraine amid Russia’s full-scale invasion, thanks to a church-driven initiative that has “reacted with lightning speed” and “very little bureaucracy” to the crisis, said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

The archbishop joined several U.S. bishops and other organizers of the Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund for a March 10 webinar providing an update to donors.

The fund was launched in January 2024, continuing the mission of the Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S. The latter was established in January 2022, as Russian troops amassed on Ukraine’s border ahead of the Feb. 24, 2022, full-scale invasion.

Russia’s aggression, which continues attacks launched in 2014, has been declared a genocide in two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights.

The Metropolia fund distributed over $7.2 million through 103 projects supporting refugees, internally displaced persons, military and hospital chaplains, and supply chains for humanitarian aid.

The funds have both received significant support from a number of U.S. archdioceses. Patrons include Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago; retired Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston; Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, retired archbishop of Washington, and his successor Cardinal Robert W. McElroy; Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston; and Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, N.J.

Now, Healing the Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund, which has raised more than $2.3 million, focuses in particular on addressing the “physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds inflicted by the criminal Russian invasion,” according to the fund’s website.

Combined, the two funds “have sent over $10 million to Ukraine,” said fund manager Father Roman Oliynik, pastor of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania.

Father Oliynik said that 40 percent of the funds were directed to projects that provided physical healing.

Church-run shelters are still essential for housing those displaced by Russia’s attacks, he said, adding that the shelters house “mostly elderly and handicapped” persons.

The funds have also aided two internationally recognized prosthetic and reconstructive medical centers, both based in Lviv: Superhumans and Unbroken.

At least 50,000 Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians alike, have lost one or more limbs due to Russia’s war, with some estimates much higher.

The costs of prosthetics, “from the simple ones to the really advanced,” are steep, ranging “from $3,000 up to $70,000 to be able to help a person to function properly,” said Father Oliynik.

One 28-year-old man, a beneficiary of the fund who was treated at Superhumans, required “seven different surgeries to be able to swallow and to speak,” the priest said, stressing that he refrained from showing the man’s face in his presentation because of the level of “mutilation.”

“He is really grateful that with your help … he’ll be able eventually to start swallowing, and with God’s help, be able to speak,” Father Oliynik said.

He said the funds have enabled the purchase of ambulances, while aiding four hospitals — among them Okhmatdyt, the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, which Russia struck in July 2024, killing two adults and injuring 16, including seven children. Father Vitalij Voetsa, a Ukrainian Catholic medical chaplain at the hospital, worked directly with fund administrators.

Father Oliynik said that 34 percent of the fund had been dedicated to “mental healing,” with examples including close to three dozen rehabilitation centers and programs offering psychological support, as well as “conferences and educational seminars to … train the trainers.”

Summer camps are “very important” for children, he said, noting that kids close to frontline areas “have not been to school for three years,” but instead “take classes by Zoom” due to the continual danger of Russian strikes.

As part of its focus on spiritual healing, the fund supports the Ukrainian Catholic Church’s patriarchal fund Mudra Sprava, which provides an array of aid while strengthening “transformational changes in Ukrainian society” based on fundamental Christian values, according to the website of Mudra Spava (which means “Wise Deeds” in Ukrainian).

The fund also aids military chaplains, who “represent Christ on the ground,” said Father Oliynik.

Crucially, the fund supports six branches of Caritas, part of the universal Catholic Church’s global humanitarian network.

“They are the No. 1 nonprofit organization in Ukraine, and we are really grateful to them,” said Father Oliynik.

Tetiana Stawnychy, president of Caritas Ukraine, said during the first phase of Russia’s war on Ukraine in 2014-2021, the organization assisted over 800,000 in Ukraine’s east, where hostilities were concentrated. That experience enabled the nationwide network to ramp up quickly amid the full-scale invasion, she said.

“Over three years, we’ve assisted 3.5 million people in different stages of the crisis,” she said.

The largest Caritas Ukraine program supported by the fund serves grieving families, Stawnychy reported.

“These are families … whose husbands or fathers, sons have died in the war, the ones who are missing in action and the ones who are in POW camps in detention somewhere in Russia,” she said. “We also have a separate program that we started for veteran families.”

Caritas adopts “a comprehensive approach” that is “always community-oriented” and “human-centered,” with “a big focus on psycho-emotional stabilization,” she said.

Stawnychy also underscored the need to help families navigate the grieving and trauma recovery processes, with spiritual and psychological resources building on each other.

Bishop Maksym Ryabukha, archiepiscopal exarch of Donetsk — where Russian forces have destroyed numerous Ukrainian Catholic churches and other houses of worship, with 44 of the exarchate’s 78 parishes now under occupation — thanked donors for their generosity amid Russia’s invasion.

Speaking in Ukrainian through a translator, he said, “I appreciate all your support during this challenging time. You are with us in different ways.”

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