It was a dreadful night: Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy on the shelling of Odesa
In an interview with the Vatican media, Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, Exarch of Odesa of the UGCC, commented on the horrors the city is going through these days, calling on the international community to stop this savage aggression.
The destroyed Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, July 23, 2023, photo: PAP / EPA / Ihor Tkachenko
“To describe my feelings during this attack on the night of July 23, I can only say one thing: it was a dreadful night, the Armageddon of the city of Odesa,” Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, Exarch of Odesa of the UGCC, said in an interview with Vatican News, commenting on the Russian missile strike, killing one person and injuring 22 others, including four children. The ravages caused by the attack have triggered reactions throughout the world. Pope Francis also commented on this after the Angelus prayer, renewing his call to pray for peace “in a special way for dear Ukraine, which continues to suffer death and destruction, as it unfortunately also happened tonight in Odesa.”
“It was nightmarish,” says the bishop, “the explosions lasted for four hours, from one to five. Odesa did not sleep all night. Those explosions were terrible because the Russian aggressor used all possible missiles — Oniks, Iskander, and all the rest — continuously attacking Odesa. Thank God, none of our faithful was injured, and the property of the Odesa Exarchate was not damaged.”
People are downhearted
It is difficult to stay undisturbed in the face of such horror, even if the spirit of resilience drives people to action: clean up the rubble and the streets and plan for reconstruction. On Sunday morning, Bishop Mykhailo was at the Greek Catholic Cathedral Church, presiding over the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for the faithful. “I saw that people were devastated and frightened. Morally it is very depressing.”
The destroyed cathedral as a symbol of the absurdity of shelling
During the missile assault on Sunday night, the Orthodox Holy Transfiguration Cathedral, which is of utmost importance to the city’s residents, was also damaged. According to the Greek Catholic bishop, they were appalled to see it destroyed. “The residents of Odesa took it as a pure outrage. It was such a negative feeling that it is hard to put into words,” he emphasizes. “This cathedral was already destroyed by Stalin’s godless regime in 1936, and in the 90s, it was completely rebuilt from the ruins by the faithful of all Odesa entrepreneurs. So, for the citizens of Odesa, it is a spiritual gem. Moreover, this cathedral was under the protection of UNESCO.”
On its website, the organization firmly condemned “the blatant attack by Russian troops on several cultural sites in the center of Odesa, where the World Heritage Site ‘Historic Center of Odesa’ is located.
“What happened proves even more that they have no regard for cultural heritage or their faithful since this cathedral was consecrated by Patriarch Kirill himself in 2010. It does not fit into any framework.”
Reliance on prayer and appeal to the international community
“This horror that we went through on the night of July 23 shows that the aggressor has no moral, human, or other values left,” Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy firmly states, “Therefore, we can only pray that the Lord God will somehow save the whole world and Ukraine from the Russian aggressive invasion and unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukrainian land and the destruction of Ukraine as a state, independent, free, recognized by the international community within its borders. Therefore, I appeal to the international community, to all those who influence the circumstances of the global dialogue, to respond decisively to the attacks that Russia is carrying out against Odesa and Ukraine.”
Earlier, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC, commented on the destruction of the Orthodox Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa.
The UGCC Department for Informationbased on the materials of Vatican News
