Bishop Oleg Butkevich, the head of the Catholic bishops’ conference of Belarus, commented that “the world was shaken by the tragic news that a military conflict has broken out between our neighboring countries.”
“I ask that, in peace, we may offer our prayers, both personal and in parish communities, for an end to the conflict as soon as possible and for the least number of victims from the conflict. And that it does not escalate into another world war,” he said.
“Christ tells us: ‘Everything is possible to one who has faith.’ (Mark 9:23-24) God help our unbelief. I also encourage fasting and offering up the sacrifice of suffering for this purpose.”
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, supported Ukraine’s right to defend its independence as Russia attacked Ukrainian military targets on Thursday morning.
“It is our natural right and sacred duty to defend our land and our people, our state and all that is dearest to us: family, language and culture, history and the spiritual world,” he said.
Ukraine is a country of 44 million people bordering Belarus, Russia, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.
Shevchuk leads the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the biggest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See.
Fears that Russia was beginning a full-scale invasion of Ukraine were heightened this week after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would recognize the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk as independent entities.
The eastern regions, which are run by Russian-backed separatists, include land currently held by the Ukrainian armed forces.
“At this historic moment, the voice of our conscience calls us all as one to stand up for a free, united and independent Ukrainian State,” Shevchuk said.
“The history of the last century teaches us that all those who started world wars lost them, and the idolaters of war brought only destruction and decline to their own states and peoples.”
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