A Trip to Ukraine
Michele Dunne, OFS
In late May I was honored to take part in the first faith delegation to Ukraine, in response to an invitation from the mayor of the capital city Kyiv. It was a long trip but very well worth it. I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts about what people of faith can do in a hot conflict such as the Russian invasion. Here is an abbreviated version of an article I cowrote with Eli McCarthy of Georgetown University:
Why would you go into a war zone? Isn’t this for political and military leaders? Is there any significant role for religious leaders and spiritual power? These are some of the questions we faced regarding our multi-national, interfaith, just peace delegation to Kyiv, Ukraine on May 24-25.
The delegation responded to an invitation by Mayor Vitali Klitschko of Kyiv: “I make an appeal to the world’s spiritual leaders to take a stand and assume the moral function that is incumbent upon them, and to proudly assume the responsibility of their religions for peace,” said Klitschko. Seventeen religious leaders joined this initial delegation as representatives from Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions, with six of us from the United States. Our purpose was to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine as well as to pray for a just peace.
Our delegation saw the devastation of war firsthand in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv that was assaulted by Russian forces for a month before being retaken by the Ukrainian army in early April. Bombed houses were everywhere, and some 3000 of the town’s residents were now homeless. At a Caritas resettlement site for 100 of them in an old summer camp, we met 91-year-old Maia. She told us that she had lost her entire family in her youth during World War II, adding that even so, “I have never seen such cruelty as in this war.”
Russian forces also destroyed Irpin’s House of Culture, which still displayed posters of concerts and children’s events from happier times. Large parts of the roof were gone, with metal rods hanging down nearly touching the rubble on the floor. Slowly walking through dust and rubble and seeing the burnt-out frame of a grand piano, we felt the immense weight of darkness, destruction, and violence. As we began to leave, some felt drawn to sing and pray together, and we formed a circle. As we prayed extemporaneously, tears came. The power of destruction and violence was being challenged by the power of lifegiving compassion, of Jesus’ resurrection that overcomes death.
What Ukrainian faith leaders as well as government officials told us was that this war was just as much spiritual and ideological as any other form of contestation. Greek Catholic Archbishop Shevchuk said, “We are to be defeated and re-educated as part of Russky Mir,” an ultranationalist Russian view that legitimized violence in a supposed battle with Western immorality and globalization. He noted that religion, culture, oil, and nuclear weapons have all been instrumentalized to serve this ideology. Apostolic Nuncio 4 Kulbokas told our group that, while he is overwhelmed by the logistics of everyday life (“I spend most of my time searching for diesel fuel”), what is critical is the spiritual battle: “if we are unified, Satan will be unable to get in.”
Disinformation, distortions, and lies are a common currency in war-making. As one example, Kyiv Deputy Mayor Mondryivskyi expressed exasperation at having to counter lies being told about Ukraine by Russian media, pleading with the delegates to “tell what you experienced; we are normal people.” Indeed, unity, solidarity, compassion, humanization, and truth will be essential tools in establishing a just peace in Ukraine, so helping to construct and bolster them is exactly where people of faith can contribute. Our delegation drew inspiration from past faith leaders’ far more courageous initiatives. St. Francis of Assisi traveled to Egypt in 1219 and crossed enemy lines to end a brutal war. He took a spiritual approach to what others saw as a military problem and ignored their warnings that his effort to meet the Muslim Sultan was dangerous and foolish. While the war did not end immediately, Francis and Sultan Malik al-Kamil appear to have been changed by their encounter, which might well have accelerated an end to the war as it led to a more humanizing approach by the Sultan and consistent attempts to negotiate peace.
What can faith leaders do in the face of a brutal war? We can and did pray, and we can be “doers of the word and not hearers only” (James 1:22). We can express solidarity through accompaniment, compassion through humanitarian aid and service, and work to establish a terrain of truth in the international public narrative on which a just peace can be built.
Through this multi-national, interfaith just peace delegation we hope to encourage a wave of subsequent delegations, increases in humanitarian aid and peacebuilding, consistent humanitarian corridors, focus on dialogue and diplomacy, and creative responses to strengthen the human community to persist in trying to save lives and end killing in Ukraine.