Faith and resilience: Ukrainian people resonate with Bishop Dell’Oro during summer visit to war-torn

Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, second from right, visits a cemetery near a Kyiv-area parish, where he prayed with families who lost loved ones during the war. He also met with women from the parish and the parish’s priests, who spoke about how they support each other and other widows and mothers of soldiers who died in conflict, as well as dealing with the related trauma.  (Photo by The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)UKRAINE — Russian forces began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Today the war continues, and since then, at least 30,000 civilians have been killed, 3.7 million are internally displaced, and 6.5 million have fled Ukraine, and according to reports, the country has sustained nearly $500 billion in damages.

For Palm Sunday 2022 and 2024, Daniel Cardinal DiNardo requested that a second collection be held at parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to support the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) amid the outbreak of war in Ukraine.  

Collecting more than $803,000, the Archdiocese was the largest donor to the Metropolitan Humanitarian Aid Fund of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, established by Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia of the UGCC. With the funds raised, the UGCC created a vast network of shelters, programs and chaplaincy programs throughout the Ukraine to assist in providing supplies and caring for spiritual needs to those impacted by the war.

Archbishop Gudziak invited Galveston-Houston Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, to visit Ukraine from June 26 to July 2. He was joined by Sister Donna Markham, OP, past president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, Charles Walsh, a close collaborator of Sister Markham, and Deacon Ed Shoener, president of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministries.

They were hosted at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv, which is located less than 50 miles from Ukraine’s western border with Poland. Bishop Dell’Oro said he was honored to be part of the delegation visiting Ukraine.

“The generosity of American Catholics is being utilized very well, as I was able to learn during my trip,” he said.

Bishop Dell’Oro concelebrates Divine Liturgy

Shortly after their arrival on June 26, the delegation visited the Stradch Pilgrimage Center near Lviv. The Stradch Center is dedicated to the UGCC priest, Father Mykola Kondrad, who was murdered by Soviet soldiers on his way to administer the Holy Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist on June 26, 1941, accompanied by cantor Volodymyr Pryima.

Father Konrad and Pryima were among the 26 Ukrainian-Catholic martyred for the faith who were beatified by St. John Paul II during his visit to Ukraine on June 27, 2001. The cantor, Pryima, was the only layman beatified. He was also proclaimed protector of the laity for the Ukrainian Catholics.  

Twenty-three years later, during Bishop Dell’Oro’s trip, more than 10,000 Ukrainian Catholics gathered to attend an outdoor Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy was presided by the head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Sixteen other bishops concelebrated the Liturgy, including Bishop Dell’Oro.  

At the Liturgy, Archbishop Shevchuk expressed his gratitude to the faithful of the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese and the American faithful for their support and solidarity.

“Be sure that Ukrainians are grateful, they will remember you forever, especially in their prayers, because without worldwide support for us, it would be impossible to withstand the enemy, who is bigger and stronger than we are,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “But with grace of God and solidarity of the universal Catholic church we are invincible. Ukraine is tired but unbroken, we are wounded, but we are resilient and be sure that Ukraine will prevail.”

Bishop Dell’Oro said he was very moved by Archbishop Shevchuk’s acknowledgment of the people of the Archdiocese and of the U.S.

At left, Archbishop Borys Gudziak meets an 11-year-old Kharkiv boy named Sashko, whose sister was killed in a Russian bombing attack. At right, Sashko learns to walk with a new prosthetic leg at the Superhumans Center, which is led by CEO Olena Rudneva, seen at left. Sashko lost his leg in the same attack that killed his sister. 

Rehabilitating limbs and lives

The delegation then visited the Superhumans Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, one of three centers in Ukraine that provides full-cycle care to patients, offering plastic and reconstructive surgery, prosthetic services and physical and psychological rehabilitation.  

The group had an opportunity to visit with Sashko, an 11-year-old boy from Kharkiv. The second-largest city in Ukraine with approximately 1.5 million people, Kharkiv has been under heavy bombing by the Russian military since March 2022. Sashko was in a store with his sister when a rocket hit the building. His sister died, and he lost his right leg.

At left: Bishop Dell’Oro meets with people who received prosthetics, including Oleh Tsunovskyy (fifth from left) and Ruslana Danylkina (second from right), at the Superhumans Rehabilitation Center in Lviv. Bishop Dell’Oro said he was inspired by their courage.

At Superhumans, Sashko had to learn to walk using his prosthetic leg under the watchful and loving gaze of his mother. During an early training session, always supervised by his assistant, he fell.

The assistant encouragingly said, “So, you just experienced your first time falling!” to which the boy promptly replied: “I experienced my first time getting up!” 

Around 60,000 Ukrainians have received amputations during the war. Every month, 70 to 100 people receive prosthetics at the center.

“Throughout my trip, I continually witnessed great perseverance and resilience in the people of Ukraine,” Bishop Dell’Oro said.   

The delegation also met the Commission on the Pastoral Healthcare of the UGCC, which coordinates the Church’s response to the impact of the war in Ukraine.   

The commission, led by Sister Sevastiana Karavatska, oversees 165 hospital chaplains who serve the faithful all over Ukraine. The commission trains priests and religious to assist people who suffered from traumatic war experiences such as PTSD, moral remorse, depression, addictions and others issues. More than 1,000 priests and religious completed their training, with 2,000 more expected to finish in the near future.

Bishop Dell’Oro walks with Father Rostyslav Vysochan, (at left,) vice-deputy of the UGCC Chaplaincy Department, who leads 55 priests who serve as army chaplains in Ukraine. Father Vysochan told Bishop Dell’Oro about the difficulties of leaving his own family behind to minister to soldiers fighting in the war, who are also away from their families.

Understanding the war’s impacts to clergy, families

That night, the delegation traveled seven hours by train to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. They met with Father Lyubomyr Yavorskyy, who, like almost all of the UGCC priests, is married and has children.

He coordinates the work of the “Mudra Sprava – Good Deeds” Foundation. The foundation has helped evacuate 6,000 people from the frontlines, provided 27,000 food kits, and continues to help with rehabilitation and humanitarian projects.

The group then met with Father Rostyslav Vysochan, vice-deputy of the UGCC Chaplaincy Department, which has 55 priests serving as army chaplains for periods of two to four months.

To a question about his family, Father Vysochan paused and then shared how, of the three loyalties that they have to the Church, their family and the country, at this time, Church and country go together, while the family is left behind, causing great personal stress to him and the other chaplains.  

They also visited the Three Holy Saints Parish in Brobary, near Kyiv. They prayed at the cemetery with families who lost loved ones during the war. The women and their parish priest spoke about the support services they offer to each other and to other widows and mothers of fallen soldiers and those dealing with their traumas of war.  

“Their grief was quite palpable, together with their deep hope for the war to end,” Bishop Dell’Oro said. “The visit to the cemetery was very moving.”   

Bishop Dell’Oro then concelebrated a Mass at the Roman Latin Catholic Cathedral of Kyiv with Auxiliary Bishop Oleksiy Jazlovetskiy and met with the ordinary of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese, Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi, who reported on the humanitarian activities of his diocese.

Bishop Dell’Oro meets with the (at left) Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko and Archbishop Borys Andrij Gudziak. At right, Bishop Dell'Oro and Sister Donna Markham, OP, are pictured with Mariupol Mayor Boychenko, second from left, and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, third from left. 

Bishop Dell'Oro meets with Lviv, Mariupol mayors

On June 28, the U.S. delegation met with Tetiana Stawnychy, the president of Caritas Ukraine (the Catholic humanitarian charity of the UGCC), one of the largest recipients of help from the Metropolitan Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine. Stawnychy said millions Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes, escaping the war.

Caritas Ukraine organized an emergency response, mobilizing the support of donors from all over the world, that provided food, water, shelter and medicine to those in need.    
Caritas Ukraine has a network of 46 branches in Ukraine that provide a different range of services. It has offered one of the largest outreach services, helping people in need, regardless of their religious beliefs, nationality or social status. Caritas has provided over 5 million services to over 3 million beneficiaries since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022.   

After their visit with Caritas Ukraine, the group boarded the train and returned to Lviv. 

The following day, June 30, they met again with Archbishop Shevchuk. He shared that two priests, Father Ivan Levitsky, C.Ss.R, and Father Bohdan Geleta, C.Ss.R, whom the Russians had imprisoned for almost 2 years, were released that day.  

“We are grateful to the Holy Father and the Catholics around the world for their prayers and support,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “Please continue praying for the prisoners of the war in Ukraine. There are still 28,000 Ukrainian civilians held in Russian captivity.”   

He expressed pride in the bishops and priests remaining with their parishioners during the war.

“I admire their exceptional service. I visited the city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. They are in an extremely difficult humanitarian situation,” Archbishop Shevchuk said. “We are grateful for the world’s solidarity and support. We admire our people who opened their hearts and houses to accommodate all internally displaced people.”  

Later that morning, the delegation, accompanied by Archbishop Gudziak, met with Lviv city mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who illustrated “Unbroken,” the city project of a medical village that provides free surgical and burns units and extensive physical and mental therapy to the victims of war.  

During the meeting, the delegation was surprised with visit by Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko.

Bishop Dell’Oro said the mayor barely repressed his grieving anger at the destruction of the port city two years ago when over 22,000 people were killed and 350,000 were forced to flee by the invading Russian army, with many in the Russian-speaking neighborhoods of the city powerfully reiterated his strong resolve to “return to Mariupol.”

Boychenck asked Bishop Dell’Oro for a blessing. Archbishop Gudziak said that both mayors are Catholics.

A church destroyed by Russian shelling is pictured in Lukashivka, Ukraine, April 27, 2022. (OSV News photo/Zohra Bensemra, Reuters)A heart to listen

On July 1, a conference on “Collective Resilience, Healing and Growth,” sponsored by the Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund, was held at UCU in Lviv.

The conference featured a video message from Olena Zelenska, the First Lady of Ukraine. Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Nobel Peace Prize co-winner from Ukraine in 2022, also talked about the importance of disclosure of crimes against civilians in Ukraine.

Before the conference, Bishop Dell’Oro met with Myroslav Marynovich, formerly a UCU vice-rector. Marynovich is a former dissident who spent 10 years in jail during the Soviet Union regime.

During the conversation, Marynovich shared what Bishop Dell’Oro quickly understood, and saw, to be at the heart of the Ukrainian people’s resilience and determination to ensure that victory be the end of the war — in addition to the clear understanding that Ukraine is not Russia and that Ukrainians are not Russians — it is the enduring memory of the Soviet rule that ended in 1991 that leads the Ukrainian people to say “never again.”

During the Soviet regime, churches and their institutions were closed or destroyed, priests and faithful were displaced, persecuted and either imprisoned or even killed.

Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — declared a genocide in two major human rights reports by the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights — Russia has destroyed at least 660 religious sites representing several faith confessions. Clergy and faithful of various denominations have been expelled, detained, tortured and, in some cases, killed.

Rescuers work at Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, July 8, 2024, after it was severely damaged during Russian missile strikes amid Russia's war on Ukraine. At least 31 were killed and over 135 injured as Russian bombers pummeled Kyiv and numerous other cities throughout the nation that day with more than 40 missiles and guided aerial bombs, with one striking the large children's hospital, where emergency crews searched the rubble for victims. (OSV News photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak, Reuters)

Ukrainian Catholic University student and her family dies in Sept. 4 Russian strike on Lviv

A Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) student and all but one member of her immediate family were among those killed in a Sept. 4 strike by Russia on the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, a city where Bishop Dell'Oro stayed and visited throughout his trip.

Seven residents died after Russia fired hypersonic missiles on targets in Lviv. Although Russia’s defense ministry alleged it had aimed at military facilities, Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovy said the attack had hit more than 50 civilian buildings, including homes, schools and medical facilities.

Among the seven slain — whose ages ranged from 7 to 55 — was 18-year-old Daryna Bazilevich, called Daria by friends and family, a sophomore at UCU in Lviv; her mother, Evgenia; and her two sisters, Emilia and Yaryna, ages 7 and 21 respectively.

The family’s father and sole survivor, Yaroslav, remained in critical condition. Photographs posted on social media by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security and by the university showed him emerging from the rubble dazed and bloodied.

UCU posted a tribute to Bazilevich that included a recent photo of the entire family gathered on the school’s campus, with the student holding a bouquet of sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower.

Bazilevich was studying Ukraine’s culture and history, which she wanted to “tell ... the world,” said the university, quoting the young woman’s scholarship application essay.

While calling for prayers “for the souls of the innocently murdered,” the university also invited all to a Sept. 4 memorial Liturgy at the school’s church, St. Sophia of the Wisdom of God.

That same day, another UCU student was laid to rest, having been killed in action while battling invading Russian forces, university president Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia said, speaking to OSV News from Odesa, Ukraine.

A number of UCU students have been killed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Lviv is a city located only 40 miles from the border with NATO-member Poland. The attack so close to Poland prompted the government in Warsaw to scramble fighter jets to the Ukrainian border area. 

Bishop Italo Dell’Oro and Father Roman Oliinyk, at left of Bishop Dell’Oro, concelebrate Divine Liturgy at the Stradch Pilgrimage Center near Lviv on June 26. The Divine Liturgy was presided by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, His Beatitude Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Sixteen other bishops concelebrated the Liturgy, including Bishop Dell’Oro.A message from Texas and the U.S.

The July 2 end of Bishop Dell’Oro’s visit to Ukraine, which he called a “cathartic and spiritual experience” that also coincided with the third anniversary of his episcopal ordination, was marked by another unique encounter.

He was invited to attend the start of the UGCC bishops’ Synod at the Zarvanytsia Shrine, a Marian shrine in a small village a hundred miles southeast of Lviv.
Bishop Dell’Oro was at the introductory prayers, Service and Divine Liturgy, and at the beginning of the Synod meeting, together with over 50 bishops of the UGCC and the papal nuncio. Archbishop Shevchuk thanked Bishop Dell’Oro for his visit and invited him to offer a comment to the Ukrainian bishops. 

In his short address, Bishop Dell’Oro expressed Cardinal DiNardo’s prayerful support and that of the faithful of Galveston-Houston and also shared the story of Sashko, the 11-year-old boy at Superhumans.  

“Sashko is beloved by all the other patients because, to an environment where the grownups struggle to relearn basic human skills, such as walking and using one hand only, and to acknowledge their physical and spiritual wounds as well, he brings the joy of his cheerful smile and an outstanding determination in the therapeutic process,” Bishop Dell’Oro said.  

Yet, more than that, he said Sashko’s very attitude, as noted in his remarkable comment upon experiencing his first fall and “getting up,” offered a clear image of the resilience seen in most of the people that Bishop Dell’Oro encountered during his intense weeklong visit to Ukraine.  

Bishop Dell’Oro also said he prayed in support of his brother UGCC bishops to continue being shepherds who unceasingly motivate their people to learn and practice “getting up,” even amid the horrible experience of war.   

The next day, on July 3, Bishop Dell’Oro returned to Houston. 

The Archdiocese is a leading supporter of the “Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund” managed by UGCC Philadelphia Archeparchy. Cardinal DiNardo was one of seven U.S. cardinals who pledged to continue to help Ukraine heal and recover from the ongoing conflict via the fund. 

Your Impact

The Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund supports the healing of physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds inflicted by the criminal Russian invasion. This Fund is a continuation of the legacy of the Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the US. 

In 2022 and 2023, the Archdiocese contributed $806,349 to the Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund. Between 2023 and 2024, The Archdiocese contributed $884,984 to the Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund.

To donate to the fund, visit www.archgh.org/secondcollections and select “Ukraine Relief Fund.”

Father Roman Oliinyk of the Philadelphia Archeparchy, who helps to manage the Healing of Wounds of the War in Ukraine Fund, accompanied the delegation during the trip. Before coming to the US in 2021, Father Oliinyk served at the Curia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kyiv and Lviv for 12 years.