On Feb. 24, the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church released a remarkable public statement. Issued under the authority of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who was targeted for immediate assassination if Russian troops entered Kyiv three years ago, it could only have been written by men who read the signs of the times — not through the “art of the deal,” but through the prism of deep faith. 

The Permanent Synod’s statement is even more striking in light of Feb. 28’s Oval Office episode, when the president and vice president of the United States seemed to object to the Ukrainian president explaining the facts of life in his country. 

The bishops did not mince words about Ukraine’s situation: “At dawn on February 24, 2022, the first air raid siren echoed across our land, and for 1,097 days and nights, it has not fallen silent.” 

Over that period, “3,500 school and university buildings, over 1,200 hospitals, 670 churches, thousands of kilometers of roads, hundreds of thousands of homes, power stations, and factories” have been destroyed. Repairing that damage will take decades. 

But “even more difficult will be the restoration and healing of lives shattered by war. … Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians bear grievous wounds, and countless others suffer the unseen pain of trauma. Thousands of our children have been torn from their homeland and are being raised to hate their homeland. Extraordinary efforts will be required to bring back nearly seven million refugees and to ensure the safe return of four million internally displaced persons — so that they can once again have a home.”

 Amid that comprehensive awfulness, however, something noble has happened — something that falsifies Vladimir Putin’s repeated claim that Ukraine is neither a real nation nor a real country: “We have not become a people defined by war — we have become a people defined by sacrifice. Ukraine ranks among the top ten countries in the global charity index. Hundreds of thousands — men and women, young and old — have taken up arms in defense of their homeland, their values, and the very gift of life itself. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice. Across our land, yellow and blue flags on graves testify to their love and our gratitude. ... This war is a test of our humanity. And in the face of profound evil and suffering, Ukrainians responded with self-sacrifice and resolve. It is through this sacrifice that we endure.” 

The aggressor, by contrast, has become a modern Moloch, the bloodthirsty Canaanite god against whom the prophets of ancient Israel railed. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance seem to think of Russia as a potential partner in peacemaking. The Ukrainian bishops urge any would-be peace brokers to consider the Russian record since 2022 and its implications for a peace worthy of the name:

“Russia brings death, devastation, and the eradication of religious freedom. In the occupied territories, our brothers and sisters of faith — clergy and faithful of various confessions — are prisoners of the aggressor. The occupiers have already taken the lives of 67 pastors from different Churches. Many have suffered captivity, and others remain imprisoned.” 

And what does that mean? It means that Ukrainian religious leaders, and indeed anyone with a conscience, is “called to be the voice of the persecuted, to ensure that in no peace agreement … will our faith, dignity, or freedom become a bargaining chip. True peace cannot exist without justice. An unjust peace is a criminal mockery that will only lead to greater injustice and suffering.”

Among certain foreign policy “realists,” the most famous line in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War has become a canonical mantra: 

“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” 

That expression of the crudest Realpolitik, which has been rejected by Catholic teaching for two millennia, has been recycled more than once in recent weeks. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops have a different view of what is realistic, and it should inspire the entire world Church as we enter Lent:

“We have become a nation on the Way of the Cross. … [Yet] to the world we proclaim: Ukrainians believe in the triumph of God’s truth. Even amidst sorrow and ruin, we remain a people of hope. We believe in the Resurrection, for we know: God is with us — with the persecuted, the oppressed, the mourning, and the suffering. In Him, we place all our trust. And so we stand, we fight, we pray. We know that one morning, we will receive the long-awaited call, ‘the war is over,’ and we will offer our prayers of thanksgiving before the throne of the Almighty.”

Those who wish to be genuine peacemakers will attend carefully to the brave words of some very brave men, who embody Catholic episcopal leadership at its noblest.