Cardinal Parolin in Ukraine

Icon of Our Lady of Berdychiv - Wiki Image

Source: Vatican Media

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is in Ukraine on a five day visit. After his arrival on Friday, he made a brief stop at the Episcopate of the Metropolitan of Lviv of the Latins. On Saturday he visited the port city of Odessa. In a meeting in the city's Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Cardinal spoke with the cathedral's bishop and priests, representatives of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, government representatives, and members of the city's Catholic community.

Cardinal Parolin began the encounter by greeting those present on behalf of the Pope. The Cardinal said he wanted to "bring you the closeness, the presence and the blessing of the Holy Father Francis" - who, Parolin said, "is following your situation with so much attention, with so much worry and so much pain."

Cardinal Parolin said it was important to remember "the pain of those who have lost their loved ones, those who have been injured ... and of those who are mourning the destruction of property, who have been forced to leave and find refuge elsewhere."

However, the Cardinal noted, the encounter was also a moment for the sharing of hope. "As Christians, we should not lose hope," Parolin stressed - and that includes, he said, the hope that, "by the grace of the Lord, who is able to touch even the hardest of hearts … a way to a just peace can be found."

Cardinal Parolin expressed his hope that this visit - like Cardinal Zuppi's diplomatic mission to Ukraine last year - would "make a small contribution toward the building of peace in this land".

As well as the meeting at Odessa's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption, Cardinal Parolin also visited the city's Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration - which was severely damaged last year in a Russian missile attack - and the Greek-Catholic Parish of St Michael.

On Sunday, the Cardinal presided over Mass in Berdychiv. The Shrine is located west of Kyiv, and is a pilgrimage destination for Catholic faithful from all over Ukraine and other countries. In the past two years, pilgrims have visited to particularly seek Mary's intercession for peace.

In his homily, delivered almost entirely in Ukrainian by Bishop Edward Kawa, auxiliary of the Latin Rite Archdiocese of Lviv, Cardinal Parolin recalled the memory of the first miracle that marked the history of this place of worship. It was in 1627, when Janusz Tyszkiewicz, the governor of the lands of Kyiv and Zhytomyr, was imprisoned in a battle against the Tartars. While bound in chains, he promised to do some good deed in honour of God and the Virgin Mary if he gained his freedom. While he was sleeping, some unknown friars appeared to him in prayer to God and Our Lady for his release.

Once he was freed, he decided to have a monastery built in Berdychiv for the religious he had seen in his dreams and whom he recognised in the Carmelites in Lublin three years later. The church was consecrated in 1642. The icon of Our Lady of the Snows, a copy of the one preserved in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, known as Salus Populi Romani, was placed on the high altar. The reproduction was donated by Tyszkiewicz himself, who had previously kept it with his family, and in 1647 it was declared miraculous by the then Bishop of Kyiv, who had been healed after praying before it.

Cardinal Parolin encouraged the Ukrainian Church to be "prophetic" with "unceasing prayer, so that God may convert the hearts of those who, having strayed from His ways and become slaves of their own pride, sow violence and death, trampling on the dignity of children of God in others." He urged that we pray to the Lord so that hearts of stone may become hearts of flesh.

"Never lose trust and hope in God, especially today, when it seems that evil has the upper hand, when the horrors of war and the pain of the many victims and the massive destruction undermine faith in divine goodness, when our arms fall off and we no longer even have strength to pray," Cardinal Parolin emphasized in his homily. He encouraged looking upon the crucified Christ, on that Good Friday, when sin seemed to have triumphed, just then, the radiant dawn of Easter broke. Death will not have the last word, he emphasised, even if one struggles to see the horizon of the Resurrection.

The last part of the Cardinal's homily focused on the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God who stands beside us in the midst of our personal crosses, and "gently accompanies us" towards the resurrection. In contemplating the icon of the Mother of God of Berdychiv, depicted as Odighítria, "she who leads," we see how she is a symbol of tenderness and love. "She is the herald of the dawn," of Jesus, who is the Light, Cardinal Parolin noted, and she is consolation in sadness, ready to offer a safe refuge. He then offered closing prayers and an invocation.

"O Blessed Mother, grant that children and young people may have a peaceful and sure future, that families may be places of love, that the elderly and the sick may receive comfort and relief in their suffering, that those defending their homeland may be protected from the attacks of evil, that prisoners of war may return to embrace their loved ones, and that the victims may be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven."

In the coming days, Cardinal Parolin will visit the Greek-Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv. He is also scheduled to meet with the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

His programme also includes a meeting with Ukrainian civil and religious authorities.

Cardinal Parolin previously visited Ukraine in June 2016 and August 2021.