The Ukrainian Catholic Church is uniting in prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine with all Ukrainian people and people of good will.

Below please find a letter from the US Ukrainian Bishops.

Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,

On February 24, we commemorate the second tragic anniversary of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine. We all know victims: those slaughtered, maimed, rendered homeless. The Russian inferno, ignited by the illegal annexation of Crimea that began on February 20, 2014, has now been scorching our brothers and sisters for ten years. The invaders have killed hundreds of thousands and at least 12 million have become international refugees or internally displaced persons. The aggressors have perpetrated at least one trillion dollars’ worth of
infrastructure damage and destruction. The criminal bombing of civilian infrastructure continues daily. In solidarity with numerous innocent victims and in deep pain, we cry to the Lord in the words of the psalmist: “They are evil; watch them, God!” (Ps 56:8).

And yet, a biblical David courageously stands against Goliath that has a territory 28 times as big and is voracious for more. The aggressors covet not merely land. The world has come to see the manifest evidence of genocide committed by the invaders. Their intensions are clear: the annihilation of the Ukrainian state, its language, and culture. The attack on our Churches is frontal. Every Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory in the last 250 years has led to a dismantling of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. This time it is no different.

In times of calamity and injustice, it is crucial for us to unite in prayer and solidarity with those who suffer: “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Co 12:26). Millions of individuals and families endure acute misery and trauma. As we re]lect upon this catastrophic assault, let us come together as a community of hope and con]idence in God’s justice to offer our supplications for a just and sustainable peace and healing of the wounds of war. In the last years, parishes of our Church formed a global network of prayer, advocacy, and aid to Ukraine. We are deeply grateful to you and your parishioners for imploring the Lord to intervene, for informing the world around us, and for your generous support offered to those in distress. Please continue. Ukrainian soldiers and civilians are not giving up; neither can we.

To mark this painful anniversary, we ask you to organize special prayer services at your parishes and actively participate in the commemorative events organized by the community at large. Our spiritual communion will be for our faithful the best way to observe the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, to do so with trust in the Lord, his justice and compassion. Jesus teaches about the importance of such common prayer: “I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my
heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:19-20). And God surely will “heed the plea of the lowly, not scorning their prayer” (Ps 102:18).

Please find attached the text of services in English and Ukrainian which you can use for organizing prayerful commemorations at your parishes. They embrace the fallen and injured soldiers, innocent civilians who were brutally killed in air attacks, internally displaced persons and refugees, those who lost their loved ones — everybody who suffers from the unjust invasion.

May the grace of the Lord be with you as we stand together in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.

Yours in Christ,
+Borys Gudziak
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States
+Paul Chomnycky, OSBM
Eparch of Stamford
+Вenedict Aleksiychuk
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago
+Bohdan J. Danylo
Eparch of St. Josaphat in Parma