In what he said was the most dramatic moment of his eight visits to Ukraine, papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski appealed from a Ternopil cemetery that the world needs to help Ukraine without further delays so that the “nonsense of war” stops. Source: OSV News.
Without mentioning Russia by name, he also said that for those who cause war, “if only someone will go down to his knees and ask for forgiveness, Jesus won’t be tired of our sins. He will forgive everything.”
Cardinal Krajewski arrived in the western city of Lviv on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he went to Ternopil to hand over an ambulance donated to the region by Pope Francis.
Arriving early in the morning, Cardinal Krajewski decided to visit a local cemetery.
“There is a section for soldiers, full of Ukrainian flags. So I started walking between the graves of young people, 20-, 23-, 35-year-olds. Buried two days ago, a week ago,” he recalled.
“I am in Ukraine for the eighth time and it just shocked me. How is it possible that they are fighting for two years, with the whole world watching and they still die?
“Everyone produces weapons, makes money on those weapons and Ukrainians still die,” he explained in dramatic tones in his message, noting that “a young pregnant woman came and stood there at the grave of her husband.”
“In my coat of arms I have an inscription: misericordia (mercy), but I somehow couldn’t grasp that mercy today,” Cardinal Krajewski continued. “I was so moved at this cemetery, at dawn, in the middle of Ukraine.”
He compared help delivered by Western countries to Ukraine to efforts to help a child drowning at the lake.
“Everyone sees it and they decide to order a rescue boat to be shipped in a month,” he said. “They decide to order lifebelts to be delivered in three days, to help Ukraine, but in a few months, to give fighter jets, but in a year.
“Let the world really help Ukraine and not just produce more weapons.”
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From cemetery with war dead, cardinal urges world help Ukraine so ‘nonsense of war’ stops (By Paulina Guzik, OSV News)
