EUROPE

Fr. Jurij Blazejewski
Author: Meghan Allen,  1 June 2022
 
A priest of ten years now, Fr. Jurij Blazejewski’s heart aches as he watches his countrymen go to battle. His brother, a father of three young children—one of which is nearly blind—is one such soldier. His mother, still at her home in Kharkiv, informs her son Jurij on a regular basis about the bombardments of his hometown. He prays each day for good news—that his family is alive and well. This is the same prayer being made by 11 million Ukrainians who have either been displaced or have had to flee the country—one quarter of the country’s populace.

There has been a deluge of reports of parishes, convents, and monasteries within Ukraine and throughout Europe that have opened their doors to refugees and displaced persons. A convent in Kharkiv, with which Fr. Jurij had collaborated in the past, has taken in 50 women and children, the youngest of which is just three months old. “Thanks to donations from local parishes, the four sisters at this convent are able to offer shelter, food, and medical assistance to many local women whose husbands have been called to fight on the frontlines or are otherwise alone with nowhere else to go,” Fr. Jurij recounts. Grassroots collaboration of this scale between parishioners, convents, local priests, and religious women and men keeps many Ukrainians hopeful that safety and support can be found even if they have to desert their homes.

Fr. Jurij, now a student of the Church Communications faculty at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, works tirelessly to keep himself informed about what exactly is happening on the frontlines and how priests and sisters are serving in the war effort. While convents are opening their doors to women and children, many priests are heading to the battlefield to serve as chaplains and others have remained at their parishes so that they might offer spiritual support to parishioners experiencing an unspeakable pain that only war can inflict on the soul of a nation. “Though priests are not picking up weapons to fight in battle, they are fighting a spiritual battle to help soldiers to cope with all the horrors of war that they are witnessing on a daily basis,” Fr. Jurij asserts. His communications education has been preparing him for this day for years. He has a voice and resources to spread news about the many priests caught in the crossfire of battle and sisters caring for countless women and children.

A March Crux article by Inés San Martin shows just how important priests and journalists are to the war effort. She got the story out about Ukrainian Fr. Stasiuk—who was appointed as rector of the Greek Catholic Church parish of Barcelona in February—returning to Ukraine to work as a chaplain and paramedic on the frontlines. Fr. Stasiuk told Crux, “I am here, first and foremost, because I am Ukrainian. I am here also because I am a paramedic and have training as military medical personnel … and I am here because I am a priest, and I believe that as such, I can help by tending to the people spiritually, from a medical point of view, and when nothing else can be done medically, help them pass from this life to the next.”

A project Fr. Jurij has been working on for years now is a collaboration of Catholic journalists and members of the media. It’s now been “called to arms,” so to speak. With such difficulty to get widespread accurate news out to the world about what is happening on the ground in Ukraine, this collaboration is strengthening their ties and ability to get the truth out. These news sources are shining light on the fact that “there is no choice for Ukrainians but to fight to save our own lives,” as Fr. Jurij puts it. It is up to adept communicators like him to inform global citizens about what his countrymen are facing and how they might be able to help—whether that be through prayer, donations, circulating accurate news, volunteering, etc.

As of March 31, BBC News reported 59 religious sites destroyed or severely damaged by fighting. One such site is Volnovakha’s Temple of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which has been almost completely razed to the ground after days of heavy bombardment. March 1, a bomb hit the Curia of the Roman Catholic diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporozhia. A local priest sent out a video on Twitter of the shelled ceiling of the top floor of the building, all the while forty people were sheltering in the basement. Fr. Gregorio Semenkov, chancellor of the Latin Rite of the diocese told Italian news agency SIR: “This morning was hell, the bomb fell on the curia.”

Fr. Jurij is a figure of hope for the salvation of all souls in this ongoing battle. His unique experience as a communications specialist has positioned him as a voice for the voiceless. Priests, without even picking up a weapon, have found themselves a vital part of the war effort—whether that be through medical or spiritual aid on the frontlines, communicating news to the outside world of what is happening on the ground, or opening parish doors to refugees. They are like the walls that remain standing in parishes in the days after missiles collapsed the ceiling in on itself.
Fr. Jurij reflects on his childhood years reconstructing his parish with his own hands after the fall of the Soviet Union: “My brother and I, together with our father and other parishioners worked with our own hands to tear down artificial walls built within our parish that served as a state archive for fifty years. We removed the filing cabinets and began to slowly see the church reveal itself to us. This was the climate of my childhood. It was a labor of love and the foundation of my Christian formation. For me, that is the parish. It is determined, simple, and united.” That is the resolve of the Ukrainian people.