Rome Newsroom, Feb 24, 2025 /
15:35 pm
Feb. 24 marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a serious escalation of a warfare that started in 2014, and it was marked with a day of prayer introduced and arranged by the Ukrainian embassy to the Holy See in Rome, in keeping with Vatican Information.
The Pan-Ukrainian Day of Prayer included a Mass for peace at St. John Lateran Basilica, presided over by Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the pope’s vicar for the Diocese of Rome, and included Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Jap Church buildings and former nuncio to Ukraine.
Through the Mass, the prayers of the trustworthy had been learn by the ambassadors of Chile, Poland, Lithuania, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Hungary, whereas the dean of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Ambassador George Poulides of Cyprus, learn the primary studying from the E book of Sirach.
Because of mediation by the Holy See, two Redemptorist clergymen of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — Father Bohdan Geleta and Father Ivan Levytsky, who had been arrested on Nov. 16, 2022, by Russian forces — had been launched on June 28, 2024.
In a gathering organized with the participation of Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, Geleta stated he was capable of endure the ache due to his religion in God and the providing of his struggling to “save his enemies” — though he admitted that this decision was “very troublesome in an setting of brutal contempt for the human particular person, the place one has the fixed feeling of being in a spot of dying.”
Geleta stated that God helped him to withstand, including that he was “very laid low with the truth that different prisoners who didn’t know God couldn’t bear every little thing and there have been instances of suicide and different painful issues.”
“All this may stay in my reminiscence and I’ll always remember these groans, these agonies, each sort of mistreatment,” he stated. “However I additionally dedicate it for the salvation of others, to testify that solely God can sanctify us if we take a step from darkness to gentle.”
The 2 clergymen had been the one civilians amongst 1,800 prisoners within the warfare jail. Geleta stated he was capable of hear confessions and even capable of maintain quick prayers within the mornings and evenings.
Kulbokas stated these are indicators of humanity in a horrible state of affairs and that “this dialogue right here between us is a dialogue of prayer.”
Andrea Gagliarducci is an Italian journalist for Catholic Information Company and Vatican analyst for ACI Stampa. He’s a contributor to the Nationwide Catholic Register.
