Videomessaggio del Capo e Padre della Chiesa greco-cattolica ucraina nella 186 ª settimana di guerra su vasta scala, 07 settembre 2025
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
The 186th week of the horrendous war has passed—a war that is a crime against God and humanity. A war started by the Russian aggressor, attacking peaceful Ukraine; coming to destroy, devastate, and annihilate.
This week, we witnessed the whole world, including European leaders, gather in Paris to form the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” — those who want to stop the aggressor’s murderous hand and those who want to help Ukraine by ensuring firm security guarantees for our people and our state.
Once again, we express our gratitude to all those who are seeking ways to end this war, searching for different ways to stop the war, stop the aggressor, and give Ukraine the opportunity to live — to live in peace, to live freely, to live in its own state.
Christians in Ukraine, watching these efforts, see how the criminal who starts a war becomes its hostage. A person who starts a war releases a demon that then enslaves him. This logic of war infects the soul and mind of a person and makes him a true slave.
Gathering together in the “Coalition of the Willing” — those who have the will — we saw how today Europe and the healthy part of humanity, which has taken the right side of history, are trying to free themselves, to free Ukraine and Europe from this demon of Russian war and aggression. But we Christians understand that it is sinful people who start wars, but they cannot end them. The one who puts an end to sin, death, and war is the Lord God. War comes from man; peace comes from God. Peace as a space of life, freedom, and dignity.
Therefore, Ukraine prays that the efforts of the world community will be successful. I remember how, at a prayer breakfast, General Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy, asked me, as a good Catholic would: ‘Pray for us!’ The same request comes from our girls and boys on the front lines.
Today, the Ukrainian army is the true peacemakers who protect the space of life for the civilian population of Ukraine. This peace is being won even on the battlefield at the cost of their own lives. That is why Ukraine is praying—praying for our soldiers, for all people of good will who are forming a coalition of the willing, for all those who today want to stop the war and create a space of peace and freedom in the world.
Today, we want the world to hear about Ukraine’s pain once again. At a time when the world is seeking a path to peace, there is a part of the world that is seeking and demonstrating its readiness for further war and aggression. Even during those peace efforts and negotiations, Russia continued to kill in Ukraine, bombing our cities and villages every night. A hospital in the city of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast was attacked. Drones and various other types of weapons were used to strike Odesa Oblast, Kyiv Oblast, Sumy Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, and even Lviv Oblast.
But once again, we want to share good news from Ukraine and declare that Ukraine stands, Ukraine fights, Ukraine prays!
Today, on this Sunday, we have gathered in Vienna, Austria, to begin the Congress of Eastern Catholic Bishops of Europe with a prayer of the Ukrainian community. This pilgrimage of Ukrainians to our ancient church, the parish of St. Barbara in Vienna, is marked by a deeply meaningful and blessed anniversary: 250 years of the Barbarum College in Vienna. A college that took its name from our parish of St. Barbara, a college that became a window to the world of European culture and civilization for all Greek Catholics of the then Austrian Empire.
Today, it is hard to overestimate the significance of the Barbarum in the history of not only our Church but also our people. After the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, all Ukrainian educational institutions that found themselves in the Russian Empire were destroyed and closed. At that time, the Barbareum became for our people and our Church a school that began to educate our church and community leaders at a level no worse than other European universities.
Later, this Barbareum became the foundation for the creation of similar institutions, in particular, the general seminary in Lviv, which brought forth a whole generation of clergy who were also public and national leaders.
Today, we are grateful to God for this gift of education and upbringing for our Church. We want to reaffirm that our Church became the bearer of this culture of education, which later became the pillar of the modern Ukrainian nation. We want to thank all those who contributed to the opening of the Barbareum, to remember all the graduates who later became metropolitans, bishops, intellectuals, and leaders of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as its state-building force, which was then passed on to subsequent generations, and today has culminated in an independent Ukrainian state.
But to mark these festivities, Eastern Catholic bishops from various Churches and countries gathered in Vienna. Because they all felt that this anniversary, this jubilee, was of great importance to everyone—to Ukrainians and Hungarians, to Romanians and Slovaks. It is also significant for representatives of other Eastern Catholic Churches, who are gathered here today to consider how we can serve, how we can act, what pastoral forms we should choose so that the Eastern Catholic Churches in Europe can fulfill their evangelizing mission today.
And our Church, in particular, through this pilgrimage that we are experiencing today, once again opens up space for the unity of Ukrainians—Ukrainians in Europe with Ukrainians in Ukraine. Our Church serves as a network uniting strength so that we may stand united as a people and as a state in today’s new circumstances.
We would like to thank the global Ukrainian community, in particular our diaspora in Austria and other European countries, for their active support of Ukraine, for being advocates for the Ukrainian cause in their countries. They also help our army by organizing various types of gatherings and collections for the needs of people in need in Ukraine, as well as for the men and women on the front lines.
Today, from here in Vienna, we congratulate the European Ukrainian community and thank them for their support of Ukraine.
Today is the eve of the first major Christian holiday in the new liturgical year. Tomorrow, September 8, we celebrate the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And we want to once again entrust to her care our people, our Church, in all places, our Church in Ukraine and in the diaspora.
We implore you: Mother of God, intercede for our people, that they may have the strength to stand firm! Intercede with your Son to grant peace to the Ukrainian land!
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for mankind, always, now and forever, and for the ages of ages. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ!
