“What good is it if you feed the stomachs of these children, these women, these people in cities, if their brains are going to be blown out?” he wanted to know.
Ukraine, Gudziak announced, “has won this war morally.”
“There’s now new unity, new purpose in the European Union because of the witness of Ukrainians who are giving their life for their friends,” he said, adding that “Jesus said — John 15:13 — there’s no greater love than when one gives one’s life for his friends.”
“That’s why you’re inspired,” he told the audience. “You’re here and the world is watching and listening because it sees the greatest love. It sees the greatest sacrifice.”
Later, he encouraged, “We can be confident that the Lord will be with the people who love. The Lord supported David against Goliath.”
He highlighted the world’s support of Ukraine, calling it a “miracle,” and asked for prayers.
“Prayer brought down the Soviet Union, not a war, not great policies,” he said.
He also shared why, he said, Ukraine is under attack.
“It’s being attacked because it’s a democracy and it has the disease of freedom of the press, freedom of religion, elections, a vital civic society,” he said. “All of this is a dangerous virus for autocracy. For oligarchic kleptocracy and for what Putin stands for.”
During the following answer-and-question session, Gudziak revealed that he spoke to Pope Francis five weeks ago, before the war began, and asked him to call Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He said that could be done — like that,” he showed, “with a smile.”
(Story continues below)
“I think he’s been doing everything that he can behind the scenes,” Gudziak said of the pontiff. “You saw he made an unprecedented step. Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy to lodge a protest and I am convinced that he’s made every effort to speak to Putin and I have some information that he has not gotten responses to his gestures toward Patriarch Kirill.”
On Feb. 25, Pope Francis visited the Russian Embassy to the Holy See, located near the Vatican. Catholic author George Weigel told Catholic World Report that the pope spoke with Putin during the visit. Patriarch Kirill, primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, has expressed support for the invasion of Ukraine.
“But I think that will change,” Gudziak said. “I’m hoping the Russian Church leadership will open up and hear the Gospel: ‘Do not kill.’”
This comes even as the Ukrainian people are not afraid to die, he said.
“We don’t know how to deal with death anymore in many Western societies in the 21st century. We think it’s the abyss, that it’s the end,” he said. “But most civilization is built on a belief of eternal life and the fact that we’re called to live with God. And those that are fearless before death witness to a faith and eternal life.”
He concluded, “I think that is a witness that is deeply touching the world today and it’s deeply touching my heart.”
Credit: Source link
