While describing the situation in the capital Kyiv, where he and other Catholics have been under Russian bombardment for over a month, Ukrainian Catholic leader, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, became visibly emotional on Tuesday
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, was speaking via video to participants of an online and in-person meeting organized by the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome on March 29.
“I’m sorry for the tears,” the major archbishop said. “With my people, I feel a duty to be a preacher of hope.
He choked up as he said: “But they were spontaneous, just to let everyone know that I’m alive, that the city of Kyiv is alive.”
“Some people said, I read, that I hid myself in a bunker. This makes me laugh because we don’t have a bunker,” Shevchuk said, adding that maybe some politicians have a bunker. “I have only my cathedral with a crypt.”
The major archbishop said that on the day of the invasion, he and his priests tried to figure out what they could do to help. There were bridges that were closed and many people trying to leave the city were stuck and showed up at the cathedral for shelter.
“We received almost 500 people with empty hands,” he said.
“We lived through these first days together, with fear, with this … invasion, without knowing what to say.”
Shevchuk called it a miracle that he was able to speak at that moment from Kyiv.
“No one understands how we’ve been able to resist for so long. It’s the strength of the Ukrainian people that surprises the world, surprises everyone,” he said.