Regarding the consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary that Pope Francis carried out on March 25 last year, the Ukrainian priest said that this event “was not by chance.”
“It’s in these times when heroes and saints are born,” he said.
A faith that moves mountains
Asked how Christians are living out their faith under the continuous bombardments, he said that, for example, the parochial vicar in Kharkiv has housed more than a dozen people who lost their homes.
“They live together, as in the early days of the Church. They eat together, they pray together, during bombardments they attend Mass together in the basement of the church.”
On one occasion, the faithful and the parochial vicar went down to the basement of the church to say the rosary in the middle of the bombardments. “At the fourth mystery came the great silence: the Russian artillery stopped firing,” Blazejewski told ACI Prensa.
“It seems to me that this faith is truly capable of moving mountains.”
The value of freedom
The priest also stressed the importance of freedom, noting that despite the number of deaths, injuries, emigrants, destroyed elements of infrastructure and culture, Ukrainians have not lost their values. “And that heritage is wonderful, it’s a victory made in people’s minds and hearts,” he said.
“Today we talk about freedom. Not only as a concept but also as one of the pillars of the dignity of every human person.”
He also pointed to solidarity and compassion “which are revealed in each Ukrainian towards his neighbor, as well as those that have been received by so many people of goodwill from all continents.”
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“It seems that under fire no one is really an atheist anymore,” he added.
Forgiveness
Blazejewski also noted that “experts in the field of communications at scenes of violence say that 50 years is the time necessary for forgiveness and reconciliation to mature after a conflict on such a large scale as this one.”
Along these lines, he hoped that “at least those who are today’s children can one day think seriously about forgiveness.”
The role of the media
For Blazejewski, “the first task of the communications media is to seek and spread the truth.”