‘In Such a Horrible War, There’s Nothing Left but Hope’| National Catholic Register
Monday, Feb. 24, marked three years of Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion. According to U.N. data, more than 12,600 civilians have died in the conflict, including more than 2,400 children. In addition, more than 10% of the country’s...
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Monday, Feb. 24, marked three years of Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion. According to U.N. data, more than 12,600 civilians have died in the conflict, including more than 2,400 children. In addition, more than 10% of the country’s housing stock has been damaged or destroyed, causing more than 2 million families to be displaced.
In this context, the apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, emphasized that, despite the pain and devastation, hope remains the only refuge for those suffering from the war.
“Pope Francis has proclaimed the Jubilee Year of Hope, and in such a horrible war, there is nothing left but hope. Military chaplains tell us that soldiers are grateful for any message of hope, because it is the only thing they have left,” Kulbokas said in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
Speaking at the apostolic nunciature in Kyiv, the representative of the Holy See in Ukraine described a country marked by suffering. “This weekend, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the war, we have many visits and events. For us, however, it’s not a special date, because every day is a day of war,” he said.
The normalization of the conflict has led Ukrainians to adapt psychologically to the violence. “I remember the first weeks of 2022, when the bishops spoke dramatically, not knowing whether they would live to see the next day. Now, we have more psychological peace to live with, although the war is more intense and dramatic than at the beginning,” he explained.
However, everyday life remains shocking. “I no longer remember the last night without a drone attack. Missile strikes are more sporadic, but drone attacks occur daily,” he lamented.
One of the aspects that most worries the apostolic nuncio is the situation of the prisoners of war and civilian detainees held by Russia. “Thousands of prisoners are suffering under inhumane conditions,” he decried.
The nuncio recalled, for example, the testimony of Ludmila, a 60-year-old woman who spent almost three years in a Russian prison. “For weeks she was tortured without being allowed to sleep, to the point of not being able to distinguish truth from lies. She ended up signing documents without knowing what she was doing,” he related.
The lack of mechanisms for releasing civilians held in prison further aggravates the crisis. “For the military there is a system of exchange, but for civilians there is not. Their situation is much more desperate,” he noted.
Vatican diplomacy has played a fundamental role in the humanitarian field. For example, in tandem with the international initiative “Bring Kids Back UA,” the Holy See has managed, in a discreet way, to bring back several dozen children deported by the Russian occupation forces.
In these three years of war, Kulbokas said, Pope Francis has managed to establish a kind of mechanism to negotiate the return to Ukraine of many children deported to Russia by the occupation forces.
The president of the Italian bishops’ conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Pope Francis’ envoy working for peace in Ukraine, has played a fundamental role in this mission, the nuncio told ACI Prensa.
Cardinal Zuppi “maintains contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to address the issue of deported children and prisoners. The process is slow, since it sometimes takes months to obtain information about the minors,” Archbishop Kulbokas explained.
However, with the detained civilians, efforts come up against a fundamental obstacle: “Russia considers many of them Russian citizens, which makes it difficult to apply international structures for their release. The only way is persuasion, dialogue with the Russian authorities to demonstrate that these people are civilians and must be released.”
Archbishop Kulbokas unequivocally criticized the ineffectiveness of the international community in finding a solution to the conflict. “There are no international structures capable of resolving the war. At the beginning, Europe may have thought that this conflict was not its problem, but when wars are not taken seriously, the conflict grows. If wars are not stopped at the outset, it’s too late later on.”
Despite the bitterness of the conflict, the apostolic nuncio maintains hope for a diplomatic solution. “In order for the conditions to be met that would put serious negotiations on the table, it’s necessary that there be not just one or two global actors to decide. Peace in Ukraine must be a matter for the entire international community,” he indicated.
Meanwhile, Ukraine faces growing uncertainty about the support of the United States, the country that has supported it the most in recent years. The Trump administration recently ramped up its rhetoric against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, the Vatican diplomat avoided entering into polemics over statements by Trump. “The Catholic faithful in Ukraine feel that they cannot trust politicians because they say one thing one day and another the next. What they expect from the Church is a clear moral position: that aggression is not justified and that life is defended,” he affirmed.
Archbishop Kulbokas emphasized that the mission of the Church is another: “The important thing is to proclaim the Gospel, which is life, peace, respect and justice.”
Despite the uncertainty and pain, the Vatican diplomat reiterated that international mediation is the only solution: “If we leave it to the great powers alone to decide, the solution will not be just. The only hope is for the international community to unite to put an end to this and other wars.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
