Salesian Bishop Kryvytskyi Comments on War

Salesian Bishop Kryvytskyi Comments on the War

“War is one of the hardest trials for Christian love, to be able to love one’s enemies”

Photo: Salesian Missions (Poland)

(ANS – Kiev – April 26, 2022) – Vitalij Kryvytskyi, the Salesian bishop of the Latin Catholic diocese of Kiev-Zhytomyr, is a young bishop. He is 49 years old today and was just 44 when he was appointed to lead the diocese in 2017. He probably never thought then that his tasks as a pastor would include accompanying a flock that is distraught and frightened by war or having to coordinate the management of aid with which thousands of people survive. The bombings on the night of Feb. 24 left him as stunned as anyone. “It was a shock,” he says. “We have a war going on, and it’s one of the hardest tests for Christian love, to be able to love your enemies.”

“With the faithful or my priests we often comment on how many times in the past we had read the Gospel passages in which Jesus says to love one’s enemies. We always thought, ‘Of course, that’s it, Jesus is right!’ But it all seems so simple until you really have to put it into practice,” adds the prelate, during an interview granted to Fr. Roman Sikon, SDB, and Michal Krol, of Salesian Missions (Poland), during a break between his trips to encourage and help the people of his diocese.

His experience of these more than two months of fighting allows him to give direct testimony about the war that otherwise would not seem credible: “Without minimizing what’s happening in Mariupol, Chernihiv, Kharkiv – in truth the people who live in the safer areas are having a more intense experience of the war. They feel the hatred directed toward Ukraine with this aggression, and many feel hatred for what they see is happening to their country. It’s pure fear; it’s death walking the streets of our cities. Instead, in the areas most directly exposed to the clashes, you see people who do not lose their optimism, who can even joke in these difficult times, and who can see that God protects them while they pass between the bullets.”

That’s why the Salesian prelate never fails to comfort his confreres, his priests, and all the volunteers who are engaged in humanitarian support of the needy – of which there are so many in Ukraine right now. “Thank you for what you do!” is the expression that Bp. Kryvytskyi uses to accompany his embrace of comfort.

Then he walked through the aisles of the churches, in many cases now transformed into warehouses, and scouted and observed the resources available, the work done and that still has to be continued. Knowing the needs in his diocese, he works with the Salesians to provide adequate aid: he has asked for bread, for example, which has been sent to him by truck from Poland, along with other foodstuffs, sheets, and mattresses.

He himself is participating by video-conference in a session of the Salesian coordination team for the management of aid to the Ukrainian population. “We had aid to send to Chernihiv, where the population is at risk of running out of food, but now the city can be reached only by river. So we have now equipped ourselves with boats.”

Not only as a confrere united by the Salesian charism, but also as the leader of the Kiev-Zhytomyr diocese, Bp. Kryvytskyi expresses all his gratitude toward the work of the Salesian Family on behalf of the Ukrainian population. “Thank you for the donations sent, for helping refugees escape, and for whatever other undertakings you are planning, because we have become dependent on your aid,” the prelate adds at the end of his virtual meeting with the Salesian coordination team, just before greeting everyone and imparting the apostolic blessing to them.