During a visit to Ukraine this week, the president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe visited with the families of Ukrainian troops who had been injured in action.
According to a news release from the office of the senior archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Gintaras Gruas of Vilnius, Lithuania, also found recently released convicts among the injured soldiers.
The soldiers indicated their wish to return to fight in the Ukrainian army after they have healed, and Gruas “offered passionate words of support and consolation to [the soldiers’] mothers and wives,” according to a news statement. He also gave his blessing on the soldiers.
The archbishop is the apostolic commander of the Lithuanian armed forces as well as the current president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE).
He spent the week of July 7–15 at Przemyl, Poland, nine kilometers from the western border of Ukraine, for the synod of bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
There are now about 51 bishops in the synod of the sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite.
They provide pastoral care all throughout the world, especially in the United States and Ukraine.
Gruas spoke to the crowd in his capacity as CCEE president.
The conflict in Ukraine serves as a reminder of the truth that we espouse, which is that reality is both visible and invisible.
We sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between these two realities since they are so linked.
The physical truth of the conflict is evident, despite its attempts to conceal its atrocities and crimes, the archbishop stated.
Our moral instruction serves as a constant reminder that everyone has the right to self-defense, and that the international community has a responsibility to defend its neighbors when they are being attacked.
On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on September 14, according to Gruas, the CCEE has called the bishops of Europe to pray for peace in Ukraine before the Blessed Sacrament.
“We continue to pray together. In its prayers, the Catholic Church of Europe remembers Ukraine, he said.