Ukraine Appeal

Fr Maksym, the parish priest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Kherson knows so much of the dangers faced everyday by people in Ukraine. Whilst celebrating Mass one day, a rocket smashed through a window and into the presbytery, miraculously the rocket did not explode and no one was killed.

Stories like this are not outliers, the stories told to us at ACN from project partners in Ukraine paint a very troubling and real story of what war-torn Ukraine is like. Fr Ihor Makar told us of his experience travelling with seminarians to  perform the traditional Byzantine blessing of the waters in January 2025 when he noticed a drone in the sky. With icy roads and poor driving conditions when he had the terrifying realisation "...that this drone was probably targeting us" and that there was nothing they could do to avoid what was coming. 

 

The windows shattered and the doors and wheels sustained huge damage as the missile hit, embedding a piece of shrapnel in Fr Ihor's leg, but despite this he is glad he got of lightly, that the Seminarians he travelled with escaped unharmed and his faith never waivers and that he must continue to serve his community through the work of God.

"Living here is really dangerous but people continue to live here, and my vocation as a priest is to be with them."

In a recent episode of ACN’s Break the Silence, ACN (UK)’s John Pontifex is joined by Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London discusses the changes to the Church and the future of the Church in Ukraine.