Major Archbishop Shevchuk: Ukrainians united with Pope Leo in praying for peace

“Human fragility in the context of war has become the fragility of Christ himself.” But the testimonies of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and then released “show that fragility is revealing a strength of the Lord present among us.”

In an interview with Vatican News, the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said this as he reflected on the fifth Easter that Ukraine will experience under a state of war on Sunday, April 12.

He also reiterated the message of Pope Leo XIV, who will preside over the Prayer Vigil for Peace at St. Peter’s Basilica this evening: “War will not prevail. Children have the right to an authentic, just, and lasting peace.”Yes, indeed, this is already the fifth Easter celebration during the large-scale war. Our central thought, our central prayer, is the invocation for peace for Ukraine. During Holy Week, in these spiritually most intense moments of the liturgical year, we contemplate Christ: condemned Christ, tortured Christ, crucified Christ, buried Christ, but also risen Christ. These moments of Christ’s passion resonate in a very special way in the hearts of Ukrainians because we know that we are walking the same Way of the Cross together with our Lord Jesus Christ. When we contemplate Jesus Christ condemned, we know that this is our land, our people, who have been condemned to death. When we listened to the testimony of our freed prisoners: the silence of the prisoner in the face of those who condemn and torture him. Many of them perceived it as the silence of Christ before the Sanhedrin. When we heard the testimonies of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped and then released, these children shared with us their feeling of being unable to defend themselves, of being defenseless before the armed oppressor. And this human fragility in the context of war has become the fragility of Christ himself. But these children say that fragility is revealing a strength of the Lord present among us. And when we listened to the testimony of our volunteers who lost their homes, lost everything, and became war-displaced, but did not lose the ability to empathize, the ability to be sensitive to those in need. They became volunteers who save lives and are a living representation of Simon of Cyrene, capable of helping those who fall powerless under their cross.