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Bishop of Kharkiv meets the Pope: Everything must be done to end the war
Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk, of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, one of the Ukrainian dioceses hardest hit by the conflict, meets with the Pope on September 11 at the Vatican and thanks him for his support, prayers and concern.
By Salvatore Cernuzio
Speaking to Vatican News shortly after a private audience with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican on Friday, Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine says he was enormously comforted by the Pope’s assurances that everything is being done to “bring this war to an end.”
The names of these two Ukrainian cities have become sadly familiar in news reports around the world, as they are among the cities closest to the Russian border and therefore among those most heavily targeted by the violence and brutality of a conflict that seems to have no end in sight.
Bishop Honcharuk describes Kharkiv as a “fire,” the “epicenter” of the war.
A warm welcome
“The Pope welcomed us with an open heart, and the entire audience was very warm,” the Bishop told Vatican News.
Present with him in the audience that lasted around an hour were also Father Volodymyr Kyrylyuk, rector of the seminary of the Latin Diocese of Kamyanets-Podilskyi and a volunteer chaplain serving a unit of soldiers, to whom he provides pastoral support. He is also a member of the Military Chaplaincy Commission of the Conference of Latin Bishops in Ukraine.
Also present were Sister Nelia Kutsak, a member of the same commission, and Tatiana Goncharuk, a psychologist. Since 2014, both have worked with soldiers and the families of those who have died as they continue to teach at the School for the Training of Chaplains.
Thanking the Pope
“They all introduced themselves to the Pope and asked for a blessing for their service,” Bishop Honcharuk explained. “We received this blessing from the Holy Father not only for ourselves, but for all those who work to safeguard human lives.”
For his part, the Bishop says he thanked the Pope several times: “I thanked him for his prayers, for his concern, for everything he does to support our country. And also for his help in freeing our prisoners and bringing the children home. I said that we are counting on his prayers and support because they are a great source of strength for us.”
An invitation to Ukraine
Bishop Honcharuk also reiterated the invitation for the Pope to visit Ukraine: “It would be a great sign for us. In that case, I told him, he would have to come to Kharkiv.”
The Bishop says he will bring back to his diocese and its people, exhausted by shelling and violence, the Pope’s encouraging words: “He said that everything is being done to bring this war to an end; that there is a great deal of work being done in this direction,” both diplomatically and spiritually.
“For us, this is important because it helps us understand that we are not alone, that the world clearly sees who the victim is and who the aggressor is,” the Bishop of Kharkiv continues.
The visits this summer to Ukraine by the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, and by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), are also important in this regard.
“They demonstrate that the Holy See is making every effort within its power. In other words, they are using their entire ‘arsenal,’ all the tools at their disposal, to promote this cause,” the Bishop emphasizes.
Death and fear
The Bishop’s tone changes when asked how people are living today in Kharkiv, where thousands have died, countless others have been wounded, and air raids continue without respite—one of the most recent taking place on September 8.
“It is a very simple and very complicated question,” he replies.
“It is simple because we see what is happening. It is complicated because we are witnessing continuous attacks against civilians, against warehouses—a real machine of death. Many people are dying, children are dying, people are losing their homes. It truly seems like an extermination of the people of Ukraine.”
For Bishop Honcharuk, it seems as if on the part of the aggressor there appears to be a “desire to eliminate.”
He is equally harsh in his assessment of the latest negotiations concerning Ukraine, including the missions of U.S. envoys to Moscow and Kyiv, the talks between Trump and Putin, the apparent openings expressed by the Russian president, and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s statements about the possibility of compromises only if Moscow gives something up.
“It is a game,” says the Bishop of Kharkiv. “If all of this were possible, it would already have been done.”
The war in Ukraine is not “like a football game,” the Bishop underlines. “We must not look at who won and who lost.”
There are people dying, people who will be scarred for life, and people terrified that “there are those who want to enter the nation in order to eliminate it.”
“It is precisely a sowing of fear and death,” he insists.
The hope that the war will end soon
Bishop Honcharuk’s hope, then, is that “the war will end as soon as possible.”
“We ask God that His love may enter the hearts of everyone. Because if God’s love enters my heart, it raises my dignity. And only when, as a human being, I feel my own dignity can I see the dignity of the other person. All wars begin when man is without a heart,” he concludes.
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