Salesian Bishop Opens Jubilee Door in Ukraine

Salesian Bishop Opens Jubilee Door in Ukraine

Bishop Maksym Ryabukha of Donetsk is 12 miles from the front

by Giacomo Gambassi

Photo © Giacomo Gambassi

(ANS – Kramatorsk, Ukraine – December 31, 2024) – The echo of artillery shells broke the silence of the celebration. The alarms went off several times. The sounds of war accompanied the beginning of the Jubilee of Hope in the Donetsk region. In Ukraine the Holy Year opened along the front. It is the one that marked the entire oblast from which the Greek-Catholic diocese also takes its name, led by Salesian Bishop Maksym Ryabukha. Unable to set foot in the cathedral in Donetsk city because it is occupied by the Russian army, he chose the church closest to the line of combat for the rite of opening the Jubilee Door.

It was the small church in Kramatorsk, the last major city in the region that remains entirely Ukrainian. Half of Donetsk is under Russian control and is the area of the fiercest battles in recent months, which see the Kremlin battalions advance. Putin’s troops are less than 12 miles away, and it is as if the horror of the fighting entered the celebration that took place on Sunday, December 29, simultaneously with the dioceses around the world.

The Holy Year door has a wreath, and above the door jamb the words “Pray for Ukraine” set in the yellow and blue colors of the flag. Bishop Ryabukha knocked the cross on the wood of the door three times. And the threshold was crossed by a small crowd defying missiles and fear, gathered for an appointment that was kept secret until the last moment for security reasons: there were young and old, mothers with children, and soldiers who asked for a few hours of leave from the trenches to be present.

“The Jubilee Door is a sign of hope for the entire region,” Bp. Ryabukha said. “Hope is our greatest strength because it gives us the courage to go beyond circumstances and human weakness. Kramatorsk is a crossroads for all our faithful, and therefore it is a kind of beacon for both free and occupied territories.”

In the homily the bishop recalled that everyone is invited to “seek the good that leads to seeing the light even in the midst of darkness.” He stressed that it is “Christ who welcomes us and helps us to look up from the drama of war and discover the beauty of life.”

On a pilgrimage to the Jubilee Door in Kramatorsk, the Salesian bishop brought his entire Church, which includes four regions – a pilgrimage of suffering that becomes hope, despite a conflict that has been going on for over a thousand days and has continued uninterruptedly since 2014. “Even if we are tired, God repeats to us that peace will come and evil never has the last word,” the bishop said.

The diocese of Donetsk will also have Jubilee Doors in the cities of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. “But not in Lugansk,” Bishop Ryabukha says, “which is entirely occupied. For this reason, our thoughts go to those who live in the occupied territories. Each of them knows that, despite not being able to come through the Jubilee Door, they will be able to experience the Jubilee with prayer and spiritual communion.”

According to the bishop of Donetsk, “These moments make us feel the closeness of the whole Church and remind us that the Lord is close to us and wants our good.”

Source: Avvenire