UKRAINE
AS THE WAR DRAGS ON... THROUGH THE YEARS:
acnmalta.org/ukraine
THE STORY OF ACN’S HELP IN UKRAINE From left to right- Marco Mencaglia (ACN Project Director of ACN for Eastern Europe), Magda Kaczmarek (ACN Head of Section for Eastern Europe), Archbishop Volodymyr Viytyshyn (Archbishop of the diocese Ivano-Frankivsk-UCR) and Sr. Karolina Mordaka (ACN Poland)
In 1953, “Ostpriesterhilfe”, as Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) was then called, received a request from Cardinal Tisserant, Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Eastern Churches, to support a seminary in Ukraine for Eastern Europeans who had emigrated. The Cardinal also asked for help in restoring the Greek Catholic Studite Order of Monks, that had been liquidated by the communists in 1946.
In January 1963, shortly after his release after 18 years of imprisonment and forced
SUBSISTENCE AID FOR NUNS: ACN has been supporting contemplative and active Nuns in Ukraine, providing them with subsistence aid.
TRAINING OF SEMINARIANS:
labour, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Josyf Slipyj met Fr Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of ACN, in Rome. Help for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in exile was agreed upon and began in the same year. In 1989, ACN began a big Bible and prayer campaign, in which hundreds of religious books were sent to people in the country who found themselves cut off behind the Iron Curtain. On 30 March 1991, Cardinal Myroslav Lubachevsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, returned from exile in Rome to Ukraine. This date marks the beginning of ACN’s help in the rebuilding of church structures on Ukrainian territory.
MASS STIPENDS:
Mass stipends are an indispensable form of support for Priests, especially in places where Priests draw no income from their poor communities, as in south-east Ukraine.
ACN has contributed towards the training of seminarians in 11 seminaries and 263 individual projects in Ukraine. The Foundation currently supports over 900 seminarians in the country.
Aid to the Church in Need www.acnmalta.org
From 1 April 1993, the Ukrainian programme of Radio Voskresinnya (Radio Resurrection) began its broadcasts on Ukrainian national radio. Up until this very day, this has been one of ACN’s key projects, which currently includes support for media in the Catholic Church of both rites principally on ZHYVE.TV and EWTN Radio or Radio Maria. The media make an enormous contribution to the interreligious dialogue in the country. Although the times of persecution were finally over, ACN continued to support Catholics in Ukraine. Main areas of ACN’s support in the last 10 years include:
RECONSTRUCTION: ACN has supported the building and renovation of 385 churches, 191 monasteries and 143 presbyteries.
Aid to the Church in Need (Malta), 35, Mdina Road, Attard, ATD 9038 Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church and registered in Malta Reg. No. LPF-212, as a Foundation regulated by the second schedule of the Civil Code Chapter (16) of the Laws of Malta. VO/2227
EMERGENCY HELP DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC:
ACN funded over 30 projects to alleviate the effects of Covid-19. This included medical costs for Nuns who fell ill from Covid-19, technical equipment for online broadcasting of Masses and Mass stipends to support Priests.
The Servants of the Immaculate Virgin Mary Sisters in Boryslav have established an aid center for displaced people at the parish, where every day they distribute clothes, food, medicines, provide spiritual and material support
As the military invasion of Ukraine sadly continues, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched the second phase of its emergency aid package to the country. Immediately after the start of the war, ACN mobilised a first package for the dioceses both in the West and in the East of Ukraine.
In this second phase, ACN wants to focus on providing direct support to the religious, priests and seminarians who have been hosting and caring for tens of thousands of displaced people in need of refuge and both physical and spiritual sustenance, as they try to make their way to the borders with other countries like Poland.
According to Magda Kaczmarek, project manager of ACN for Ukraine, this second phase of support for the Ukrainian Church will reinforce the emergency aid for monasteries and parishes sheltering displaced people. Part of the aid will go towards the purchase of vehicles to deliver relief food and medicines and to transport persons, as well as to buy generators to supply much-needed electricity. “The world has responded with generosity to the plight of the Ukrainian people. Many donations are reaching the bordering countries, but there is now a need for vehicles to transport the goods to those who need them in the country, often in locations that have been heavily damaged, or are still under threat,” she
If you wish to receive this leaflet by post please send us your contact details via SMS on 7999 9969
Church volunteers providing hot meals every day at the railway station in Odessa
explains. “ACN was one of the first organisations to pledge emergency support for Ukraine, a country where we have been funding projects for thirty years, that is since the end of the Cold War. It is important that the Ukrainians realise that even as this war drags on, their fellow believers around the world shall not forget them. ACN will continue to look for ways to help effectively, on the ground, through the local Church”.
ACN has been directly involved in receiving and supporting displaced people fleeing Ukraine into Poland, through the Polish office of the Foundation. The office of Aid to the Church in Need in Krakow, Poland, has become a huge storehouse of goods.
Konrad Ciempka, director of the facility, explains: “We have become a warehouse and a support point for displaced people. We cooperate with other help points in the city and exchange information about what we have and what we lack.” Refugees receive emergency support, such as food, clothes and medicines from ACN as well as assistance in finding a job, accommodation in Poland, or the possibility of travelling to another city/country. Through the Polish office of ACN, the Foundation has sent truckloads of food, clothes, sleeping bags, hygiene products, diapers and other essentials for children to the west of Ukraine, where the internally displaced people (IDPs), coming from the eastern part of the
country, seek shelter. “This continued help is essential,” says Fr Andrzej Paś, who manages the ACN Office in Wrocław which has been the first point of refuge for thousands of refugees arriving in Poland. He adds that there are ever increasing requests from Ukraine due to the difficult humanitarian situation there. “We want to send more trucks with all the necessities that are lacking in Ukraine, which has become a place of great suffering,” he emphasises. Fr Waldemar Cisło, director of the Polish section of ACN points out that “we are all following with concern the images that come to us from Ukraine. We see photos of bombed hospitals and scarred children, and pregnant women. All this obliges us to help the victims of the war,” he explains. “In times of war, the Church is always a place of refuge for believers and non-believers alike”, says Fr Waldemar, adding that ACN wants to keep on empowering the Church in Ukraine so that its Priests and Sisters can continue to provide the much-needed support to the faithful at this difficult time.
MISSION IN TIMES OF WAR: “WE CONTINUE TO FACE NEW CHALLENGES” Fr Andriy Bodnaruk ministers to families and to soldiers at check-points in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv. He also celebrates liturgies in the shelters and organises activities to help distract the children from the war.
A priest visiting a sick old woman at home
2148 7818
@acn_malta
Wearing a bulletproof vest over his cassock, he pays pastoral visits to those who have chosen to stay, either in the homes for the displaced or in their own residences, such as a 90-year-old blind lady who lives with her daughter. Fr Andriy takes Holy Communion to those who want it and distributes aid packages to the needy.
@acn_malta
CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS IN UKRAINE: A NEW WAY OF SERVING ve The contemplative Sisters warmly recei and care for the displaced
The office of ACN in Krakow Poland has become a huge storehouse of relief items for dsiplaced people
“I am doing what I did before: I serve God, the Church and our people. I especially try to be close to those who are fighting, and to those who are dealing with stress and anxiety,” says the young Greek Catholic priest. Fr Andriy is not alone in his service. Hundreds of Priests in Ukraine are carrying out important social and pastoral work. In one of the underground stations in the capital that currently doubles as an air-raid shelter, Priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church regularly celebrate Mass. One Priest celebrates, while another hears confessions. As with many Eastern Rite churches, the Greek Catholics allow for the ordination of married men, and Fr Andriy has a wife and children. He explains that his family was forced to move to western Ukraine. “Since we had to leave everything behind in Kyiv, we had to buy what was needed to start over.” Unfortunately, in these difficult conditions, money runs out fast. His savings
Aid to the Church in Need Malta
only lasted until the end of the first month of the war, he explains. “We don’t know how long this is going to go on for, and it is very unnerving. Sometimes, through fatigue and tensions, we begin to have doubts, and panic sets in,” he says. “Despite the great support we have been getting from ACN, we continue to face new challenges. As I don’t have a means of transport, for instance, I often depend on the help and availability of others to deliver food packages and carry out my priestly ministry,” Fr Andriy explains. Transport is getting increasingly expensive, because fuel prices have risen considerably and there are shortages. Fuel is mostly reserved for the military and other urgent services. “We have to form long queues at petrol stations to get fuel to be able to visit our community across the city, to provide them with the Sacraments, and assist with other needs.”
Hundreds of needy families fleeing the war in Ukraine are being welcomed by Nuns in finding refuge in their monasteries and cloisters. This is the case of the contemplative Benedictines of Solonka, near Lviv in Ukraine. They have opened the doors of their monastery to people affected by the war.
“During the first few weeks of the war there was a lot of movement in our monastery. People came from several different cities in Ukraine. It was mostly women and children, accompanied by their husbands who would help their families cross the border, before returning to fight for their country,” explains Sister Klara. Roman, Anna and their two children, a seven-year-old boy and a month-old baby, are one of the families currently living in Solonka. As they fled the war and decided to head to Lviv, they realised on arrival that the city was overcrowded and there were no rooms available. Anna found a place to stay on the floor of a home for mothers and their children, but that was not what she wanted, especially as her baby was still so small. With growing frustration,
A contemp lati with a disp ve Sister laced famil y
they were going from one place to the next, but nobody was able to help. Finally, they sat on a bench, completely worn out. The baby was cold, and they didn’t know what to dress it in. That was when a Nun came up to them and asked: “Do you have a place where to stay? Is anybody expecting you?” They replied in the negative, adding that they were desperate. The Nun suggested they go to the monastery, where they were given a clean room, food, clothes and powdered milk for the baby. Anna was bubbling with joy. “We will remember this moment, and be grateful for it for the rest of our lives.” The Sisters have left their cloister and the silence to which they are usually committed, but they believe that this is what God is asking of them at this moment in time. “This is how our community of Nuns and Monks reads the signs of the times, and now this is how we envision our service.”
You may wish to offer a donation by visiting www.acnmalta.org/donate or through APS Bank IBAN: MT72 APSB 7705 7008 5772 2000 1771 733
acnmalta.org
acnmalta.org/ukraine
ACN IN POLAND: THE FIRST SUPPORT POINT FOR THOUSANDS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE
ACN has been directly involved in receiving and supporting displaced people fleeing Ukraine into Poland, through the Polish office of the Foundation. The office of Aid to the Church in Need in Krakow, Poland, has become a huge storehouse of goods.
Konrad Ciempka, director of the facility, explains: “We have become a warehouse and a support point for displaced people. We cooperate with other help points in the city and exchange information about what we have and what we lack.” Refugees receive emergency support, such as food, clothes and medicines from ACN as well as assistance in finding a job, accommodation in Poland, or the possibility of travelling to another city/country. Through the Polish office of ACN, the Foundation has sent truckloads of food, clothes, sleeping bags, hygiene products, diapers and other essentials for children to the west of Ukraine, where the internally displaced people (IDPs), coming from the eastern part of the
country, seek shelter. “This continued help is essential,” says Fr Andrzej Paś, who manages the ACN Office in Wrocław which has been the first point of refuge for thousands of refugees arriving in Poland. He adds that there are ever increasing requests from Ukraine due to the difficult humanitarian situation there. “We want to send more trucks with all the necessities that are lacking in Ukraine, which has become a place of great suffering,” he emphasises. Fr Waldemar Cisło, director of the Polish section of ACN points out that “we are all following with concern the images that come to us from Ukraine. We see photos of bombed hospitals and scarred children, and pregnant women. All this obliges us to help the victims of the war,” he explains. “In times of war, the Church is always a place of refuge for believers and non-believers alike”, says Fr Waldemar, adding that ACN wants to keep on empowering the Church in Ukraine so that its Priests and Sisters can continue to provide the much-needed support to the faithful at this difficult time.
MISSION IN TIMES OF WAR: “WE CONTINUE TO FACE NEW CHALLENGES” Fr Andriy Bodnaruk ministers to families and to soldiers at check-points in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv. He also celebrates liturgies in the shelters and organises activities to help distract the children from the war.
A priest visiting a sick old woman at home
2148 7818
@acn_malta
Wearing a bulletproof vest over his cassock, he pays pastoral visits to those who have chosen to stay, either in the homes for the displaced or in their own residences, such as a 90-year-old blind lady who lives with her daughter. Fr Andriy takes Holy Communion to those who want it and distributes aid packages to the needy.
@acn_malta
CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS IN UKRAINE: A NEW WAY OF SERVING ve The contemplative Sisters warmly recei and care for the displaced
The office of ACN in Krakow Poland has become a huge storehouse of relief items for dsiplaced people
“I am doing what I did before: I serve God, the Church and our people. I especially try to be close to those who are fighting, and to those who are dealing with stress and anxiety,” says the young Greek Catholic priest. Fr Andriy is not alone in his service. Hundreds of Priests in Ukraine are carrying out important social and pastoral work. In one of the underground stations in the capital that currently doubles as an air-raid shelter, Priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church regularly celebrate Mass. One Priest celebrates, while another hears confessions. As with many Eastern Rite churches, the Greek Catholics allow for the ordination of married men, and Fr Andriy has a wife and children. He explains that his family was forced to move to western Ukraine. “Since we had to leave everything behind in Kyiv, we had to buy what was needed to start over.” Unfortunately, in these difficult conditions, money runs out fast. His savings
Aid to the Church in Need Malta
only lasted until the end of the first month of the war, he explains. “We don’t know how long this is going to go on for, and it is very unnerving. Sometimes, through fatigue and tensions, we begin to have doubts, and panic sets in,” he says. “Despite the great support we have been getting from ACN, we continue to face new challenges. As I don’t have a means of transport, for instance, I often depend on the help and availability of others to deliver food packages and carry out my priestly ministry,” Fr Andriy explains. Transport is getting increasingly expensive, because fuel prices have risen considerably and there are shortages. Fuel is mostly reserved for the military and other urgent services. “We have to form long queues at petrol stations to get fuel to be able to visit our community across the city, to provide them with the Sacraments, and assist with other needs.”
Hundreds of needy families fleeing the war in Ukraine are being welcomed by Nuns in finding refuge in their monasteries and cloisters. This is the case of the contemplative Benedictines of Solonka, near Lviv in Ukraine. They have opened the doors of their monastery to people affected by the war.
“During the first few weeks of the war there was a lot of movement in our monastery. People came from several different cities in Ukraine. It was mostly women and children, accompanied by their husbands who would help their families cross the border, before returning to fight for their country,” explains Sister Klara. Roman, Anna and their two children, a seven-year-old boy and a month-old baby, are one of the families currently living in Solonka. As they fled the war and decided to head to Lviv, they realised on arrival that the city was overcrowded and there were no rooms available. Anna found a place to stay on the floor of a home for mothers and their children, but that was not what she wanted, especially as her baby was still so small. With growing frustration,
A contemp lati with a disp ve Sister laced famil y
they were going from one place to the next, but nobody was able to help. Finally, they sat on a bench, completely worn out. The baby was cold, and they didn’t know what to dress it in. That was when a Nun came up to them and asked: “Do you have a place where to stay? Is anybody expecting you?” They replied in the negative, adding that they were desperate. The Nun suggested they go to the monastery, where they were given a clean room, food, clothes and powdered milk for the baby. Anna was bubbling with joy. “We will remember this moment, and be grateful for it for the rest of our lives.” The Sisters have left their cloister and the silence to which they are usually committed, but they believe that this is what God is asking of them at this moment in time. “This is how our community of Nuns and Monks reads the signs of the times, and now this is how we envision our service.”
You may wish to offer a donation by visiting www.acnmalta.org/donate or through APS Bank IBAN: MT72 APSB 7705 7008 5772 2000 1771 733
acnmalta.org
acnmalta.org/ukraine
ACN IN POLAND: THE FIRST SUPPORT POINT FOR THOUSANDS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE
UKRAINE
AS THE WAR DRAGS ON... THROUGH THE YEARS:
acnmalta.org/ukraine
THE STORY OF ACN’S HELP IN UKRAINE From left to right- Marco Mencaglia (ACN Project Director of ACN for Eastern Europe), Magda Kaczmarek (ACN Head of Section for Eastern Europe), Archbishop Volodymyr Viytyshyn (Archbishop of the diocese Ivano-Frankivsk-UCR) and Sr. Karolina Mordaka (ACN Poland)
In 1953, “Ostpriesterhilfe”, as Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) was then called, received a request from Cardinal Tisserant, Secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Eastern Churches, to support a seminary in Ukraine for Eastern Europeans who had emigrated. The Cardinal also asked for help in restoring the Greek Catholic Studite Order of Monks, that had been liquidated by the communists in 1946.
In January 1963, shortly after his release after 18 years of imprisonment and forced
SUBSISTENCE AID FOR NUNS: ACN has been supporting contemplative and active Nuns in Ukraine, providing them with subsistence aid.
TRAINING OF SEMINARIANS:
labour, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Archbishop Josyf Slipyj met Fr Werenfried van Straaten, the founder of ACN, in Rome. Help for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in exile was agreed upon and began in the same year. In 1989, ACN began a big Bible and prayer campaign, in which hundreds of religious books were sent to people in the country who found themselves cut off behind the Iron Curtain. On 30 March 1991, Cardinal Myroslav Lubachevsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, returned from exile in Rome to Ukraine. This date marks the beginning of ACN’s help in the rebuilding of church structures on Ukrainian territory.
MASS STIPENDS:
Mass stipends are an indispensable form of support for Priests, especially in places where Priests draw no income from their poor communities, as in south-east Ukraine.
ACN has contributed towards the training of seminarians in 11 seminaries and 263 individual projects in Ukraine. The Foundation currently supports over 900 seminarians in the country.
Aid to the Church in Need www.acnmalta.org
From 1 April 1993, the Ukrainian programme of Radio Voskresinnya (Radio Resurrection) began its broadcasts on Ukrainian national radio. Up until this very day, this has been one of ACN’s key projects, which currently includes support for media in the Catholic Church of both rites principally on ZHYVE.TV and EWTN Radio or Radio Maria. The media make an enormous contribution to the interreligious dialogue in the country. Although the times of persecution were finally over, ACN continued to support Catholics in Ukraine. Main areas of ACN’s support in the last 10 years include:
RECONSTRUCTION: ACN has supported the building and renovation of 385 churches, 191 monasteries and 143 presbyteries.
Aid to the Church in Need (Malta), 35, Mdina Road, Attard, ATD 9038 Aid to the Church in Need is a Pontifical Foundation of the Catholic Church and registered in Malta Reg. No. LPF-212, as a Foundation regulated by the second schedule of the Civil Code Chapter (16) of the Laws of Malta. VO/2227
EMERGENCY HELP DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC:
ACN funded over 30 projects to alleviate the effects of Covid-19. This included medical costs for Nuns who fell ill from Covid-19, technical equipment for online broadcasting of Masses and Mass stipends to support Priests.
The Servants of the Immaculate Virgin Mary Sisters in Boryslav have established an aid center for displaced people at the parish, where every day they distribute clothes, food, medicines, provide spiritual and material support
As the military invasion of Ukraine sadly continues, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched the second phase of its emergency aid package to the country. Immediately after the start of the war, ACN mobilised a first package for the dioceses both in the West and in the East of Ukraine.
In this second phase, ACN wants to focus on providing direct support to the religious, priests and seminarians who have been hosting and caring for tens of thousands of displaced people in need of refuge and both physical and spiritual sustenance, as they try to make their way to the borders with other countries like Poland.
According to Magda Kaczmarek, project manager of ACN for Ukraine, this second phase of support for the Ukrainian Church will reinforce the emergency aid for monasteries and parishes sheltering displaced people. Part of the aid will go towards the purchase of vehicles to deliver relief food and medicines and to transport persons, as well as to buy generators to supply much-needed electricity. “The world has responded with generosity to the plight of the Ukrainian people. Many donations are reaching the bordering countries, but there is now a need for vehicles to transport the goods to those who need them in the country, often in locations that have been heavily damaged, or are still under threat,” she
If you wish to receive this leaflet by post please send us your contact details via SMS on 7999 9969
Church volunteers providing hot meals every day at the railway station in Odessa
explains. “ACN was one of the first organisations to pledge emergency support for Ukraine, a country where we have been funding projects for thirty years, that is since the end of the Cold War. It is important that the Ukrainians realise that even as this war drags on, their fellow believers around the world shall not forget them. ACN will continue to look for ways to help effectively, on the ground, through the local Church”.