A REDEMPTORIST priest in Ukraine has told of how his monastery is taking in war orphans and safeguarding them as Russian attacks rage across the country.
Interviewed by CommonHome TV 36-year-old Fr Taras Kchik CSsR spoke of the tide of internally disposed Ukrainians on the move, with many joining the 4.5 million people who have already become refugees abroad.
In the Redemptorist community of Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine’s south east, Fr Kchik said a retreat house has been converted to care for displaced persons, while a kindergarten has become a makeshift home for orphans.
“We have a number of refugees who at any point can come in. Some have stayed, some have moved on and there’s always new faces, new people coming in we have been caring for them since the first days and will continue to care for anyone who needs a place to stay,” Fr Taras Kchik CSsR said.
Fr Kchik said there was no thought of priests leaving their monastery even as war raged in a nearby city.
Instead, he said there was solidarity with the Ukrainian people and their extreme needs at this time.
“Because there are some who can’t sleep, there are those with young infants who sometimes can’t get up,” Fr Kchik said.
“The infants, the elderly – those people are trapped. The Redemptorist charism is to be with those who are most abandoned, who need us the most.”
At the monastery there are many volunteers, not just caring for the children and refugees but also providing resources for soldiers on the frontline – building up first aid kits, weaving camouflage netting and baking energy bars.
Fr Kchik told the story of one group of orphans who arrived after travelling for four days from a city that had been bombed and destroyed.
At the monastery they were brought to two rooms in the kindergarten that had been prepared for them.
Fr Kchik noted the solidarity and trust between the children.
“The older kids, their first concern was to make sure that those youngest children were all right,” he said.
“They weren’t concerned about themselves … their first concern was that their little brother or little sister was being taken care of.”
Amidst the trauma of war, Fr Kchik said he “sees hope”.
“Very often if you look at the big picture you’ll see… stressing statistics, you start seeing how many people have died,” he said.
“But I see hope in the little things. In the way some refugees have started sending their children to our kindergarten and how their kids are adapting and getting along and starting to laugh and smile again.
“These little moments of just seeing children have their childhood again – that gives me a lot of hope.”
