My ministry in Ukraine began 20 years ago. On April 12, 2002, I left for our post in Sąsiadowice, a town in western Ukraine. Our activity there was focused on being and supporting the local people. We visited the sick, the elderly and the lonely. We served pastoral and charitable services in the parish. People were very kind and grateful. They often talked about their life during the Soviet Union. There were two denominations in the village: Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, but there were no great divisions. Greek Catholic believers willingly came to us for services, especially for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. We also celebrated holidays together. After several years of activity in Sąsiadowice, our Congregation received an invitation and a request from the bishop to start pastoral and missionary activities in Koziatyn, in the eastern part of Ukraine. The further east of Ukraine, more people need spiritual care and missionary activities. The superiors of the Congregation decided to move our mission from Sąsiadowice to Koziatyn, we went there in 2006. People were very happy with our arrival. The parish and church were very neglected and people felt abandoned. At the beginning, we lived in the apartment of one of the parishioners. From the very first day, the parishioners were of great help. We could count on them in everything we needed so that we would only stay there. After two weeks, the bishop also visited us to see how we live. There was a great need for our presence in Koziatyn and we felt it very much, and it gave us additional strength to start our mission there.
After some time, the Congregation decided to start building its own house in Koziatyn with rooms for pastoral activities. A common room and rooms for children were created in the new building. We also had plenty of food for anyone who was hungry. We also visited the sick, the lonely and the elderly. It was through the conversations during these visits that I learned the history of Ukraine. Older people were eager to talk about their past and many difficult experiences. I heard what these people experienced in their youth. Their attitude towards us was also touching. Although they did not have much themselves, they wanted to help us very much and cared for us as if they were the closest family. Now, when I was leaving Koziatyn, they werecrying for me …
The war in Ukraine began in 2014, when the soldiers from our town also went to fight, and the people needed support and a kind presence even more. Apart from my daily mission, I tried to help as much as I could. I organized rosaries and medals, which I sent for soldiers to the front. They needed it much. Even non-believers, going to war, would come to me for a rosary and a medal with the image of Mary Immaculate. I gave away about 2,500 rosaries. But I did not only distribute rosaries. One friend from Poland gave me bulletproof vests, asking me to give them to the young men from our town who were going to war, because they were often called to the front without any preparation or protection. It was also an important help for them. Young boys sent to the war came to our house, to whom I gave vests, rosaries and medals. Together with the parishioners, we also prayed fervently for them. Since 2014, many people have died in the war, and in fact, there has not been a day when someone did not die there.
Due to personnel problems in the Congregation, a decision was made to end our activities in Ukraine. Until the formalities related to the building were completed, I was alone there, continuing my tasks. It was also a very interesting and beautiful experience for me. I had to organize many things myself, but then the people from the town helped me even more. I felt very safe with them and experienced their great goodness even more than before. I didn’t think so well about myself as they did about me … It was a beautiful time together!
I left the house before Christmas 2021. The Congregation decided to leave the facility at the disposal of the diocese, subject to pastoral activity there. Now I have constant contact with the parish priest and people from the parish. This is important, especially after the outbreak of the war on February 24. Currently, our house is inhabited by mothers with young children who have escaped from Kiev. They are very grateful because I have left in the house everything they need for a normal life – even food supplies.
Now I am preparing for new tasks in the Congregation, but I am with them with my heart and prayer. I have spent twenty years in Ukraine, it is a beautiful time in my life, so I am particularly touched by news from Ukraine, which is fighting for its future, and I understand well the people who are surviving the war and fleeing from it.
S.M. Fabian Furca