Catholics in Ukraine mark their second Christmas, and third winter, under Russian attack. Instead of awaiting the first star on Christmas Eve to mark the beginning of the Christmas supper, Ukrainian children will watch for incoming Russian missile fire. Instead of angels singing over the winter fields, the sound of Russian mortar attacks may resound.

Many people don’t know what the “Ukrainian Catholic Church” is. It is one of the multiple rites (like the Latin Rite) that make up the Catholic Church and which acknowledge the primacy of the Pope. The Ukrainian Catholic Church is in communion with Rome but observes its own liturgy, which parallels the Eastern liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil. Large parts of the Ukrainian Catholic Church derive from “unions” that occurred in the 16^th and 17^th centuries (hence the sometimes-heard term “Uniate,” which is less used today). As a consequence, while under the Pope Ukrainian Catholics have their own hierarchy. In the United States, Ukrainian Catholics are organized into eparchies (the equivalent of dioceses): the Archeparchy of Philadelphia and the Eparchies of Stamford (CT), Chicago (IL), and Parma (OH). The Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia is the Most Rev. Borys Gudziak. Born in 1960 in Syracuse, New York, he studied at Syracuse University, the Pontifical Oriental Institute, the Pontifical Urban University, and Harvard (from which he earned his doctorate). He was founding rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv. He was ordained a bishop in 2012, with responsibility for Ukrainian Catholics in France and the Benelux countries. In 2019 he became Metropolitan Archbishop of Philadelphia.

Ukrainian Catholics have suffered much for their loyalty to the Holy See. The lands where the “unions” occurred in the 16^th and 17^th centuries were subsequently mostly under Polish or Russian domination. Wherever Russia dominated, Ukrainian Catholics were persecuted and forced back into the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukrainian Catholics had some breathing room in the Polish lands, until Poland’s partitions in the second half of the 18^th century. In those parts of Poland seized by the Russians, anti-Ukrainian Catholic persecution quickly followed. Only in those parts that fell under Catholic Austrian partition was some semblance of religious freedom allowed.

This situation lasted through World War I and part of the interwar years. In those parts of Ukraine forced after 1917 into the USSR, persecution was double: the Russian Orthodox and the atheists both persecuted Ukrainian Catholics. In 1939 Russia, as an ally of Hitler’s Germany, divided Central Europe between the Moscow and Berlin dictatorships, with Ukrainian ethnic lands that had been in Poland incorporated into the USSR. Persecution of Ukrainian Catholics followed, culminating, after Stalin opportunistically switched sides in the War, in a 1946 “synod” that abolished the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine and forced it into the Orthodox church, a situation that persisted until Ukraine itself became free in 1991.

Given that history, what this augurs for the future is frightening: Since Vladimir Putin does not believe the Ukrainians are a distinct people, it is hard to imagine he and his “Russian world” ideological followers (which includes the Russian Orthodox Church) will concede that Ukrainian Catholics can be loyal Ukrainians who acknowledge papal primacy.

Ever since Russia’s further rape of Ukraine in February 2022, Archbishop Gudziak has worked to bring Ukraine’s case before the West. In October, an ecumenical and interfaith delegation visited Washington to bear witness to the religious freedom that exists in free Ukraine. As the participants ironically observed, where else would you find a rabbi and an imam sitting in solidarity, both speaking in defense of God-given human dignity?

As Archbishop Gudziak notes, the war has physically displaced 15,000,000 people. Eight million of them are abroad, including about 300,000 in the U.S. He warns that, if Russia prevails, another ten million will likely follow. His connections with the Church in Ukraine and its clergy make him uniquely positioned to afford Catholics in the United States an authentic smell of the Ukrainian sheep, drenched in blood. He also acknowledges the solidarity of the rest of the Latin Catholic bishops in the United States with Ukraine.

Besides keeping Americans informed of what is happening in Ukraine — and sustaining their interest is no mean task, given that Russia bets merely on outlasting Western commitment and resolve — Archbishop Gudziak and the Archeparchy of Philadelphia have organized a Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund. It channels assistance to Ukraine, boasting it can do so faster than most aid agencies because it can rely on a network of 3,000 priests and 3,000 parishes within Ukraine. The Metropolia Humanitarian Aid Fund has, to date, raised about $8.3 million for Ukrainian relief. Its website is here: Metropolia invites to make donations to the Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine – Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia (ukrarcheparchy.us)

This Christmas, as we sit down to our own tables and wish each other “peace on earth and good will to men,” consider a pledge to the Humanitarian Aid Fund for those who will spend that night not knowing if it’s their last.