In 2023, unshakable reservoir of hope in Ukraine

Msgr. William Bilinsky, whose parents were born in Ukraine, doesn’t bother turning on the TV or searching a website to get live, on-the-ground observations about what is going on in his parents’ home country, 10 months after Vladimir Putin turned a proud land into his personal killing field.

From 5,800 miles away, Msgr. Bilinsky fires up the computer in his Folsom home and launches Viber, the video messaging app that relies on satellite transmission instead of the internet, to speak with his cousin.

When the electricity is working, she tells him what she sees:

™ Ukrainian Greek Catholic churches – thousands of them across the expanse of the country – opening their doors to provide shelter for those whose homes have been destroyed and who have no other place to go.

™답 Priests sleeping in the churches, side by side with their people.

™답 Inflation three times the normal amount.

™답 Bread selling by the half-loaf.

™답 Woolen coverlets draped over the interior walls of homes to moderate the bitter winter frost.

™답 Gas-powered generators, just like the ones south Louisianians use after hurricanes, keeping the lights on, with electricity delivered by ingeniously snaking long extension cords from house to house.

™답 Mass celebrated in bomb shelters.

™답 Fifteen million of the 50 million Ukrainians have been displaced.

™답 Eight hundred children dead among the more than 14,000 civilians and military casualties.

And yet, as 2022 turns into 2023, Msgr. Bilinsky says there remains an unshakable reservoir of hope in his parents’ homeland. After all, he says, Ukrainians spent 45 years under communism after WWII, never abandoning hope despite the destruction of their personal freedom and their ability to openly practice their faith.

Something besides the genetic resilience of the Ukrainian people gives Msgr. Bilinsky hope. And, it comes from Russia itself.

“Do you know what the most powerful force in Russia is?” Msgr. Bilinsky asked. “It’s mothers. Mothers are losing sons. That’s really what ended the First World War and the Russian-Japanese War. It was the same thing – mothers began to protest. And, that is happening now. Mothers started losing the young soldiers, their sons.”

Echoes of fall of communism

Msgr. Bilinsky, 83, vividly recalls how the Ukrainian people never capitulated under communism. In 1991, after the fall of communism, he was in Ukraine translating for former New Orleans Archbishop Philip Hannan when he was asked to drive through the night to the tiny village of Mykolaiv, 10 miles south of Lviv in Western Ukraine.

Villagers went to the front doors of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with lock cutters. All of a sudden, the church bells began to ring. Within minutes of the bells pealing, hundreds of villagers walked up the hill to the town square for the first liturgy celebrated inside the church since 1946.

Five hundred people, standing, could squeeze inside the church. There were no pews. Another 300 people stood outside in the square.

After climbing the steps of the elevated pulpit, Msgr. Bilinsky proclaimed the Gospel and then delivered what he thought was an acceptable homily. He kept its length to American standards.

“As I finished and I was walking down the steps, the sacristan came up to me and said, ‘Too short. Preach some more!’ So I went back up there and preached some more,” Msgr. Bilinsky said.

After the 10 p.m. liturgy, he went throughout the village, baptizing babies, children and adults, with a special dispensation from the local archbishop. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian archbishop had held out his hands to Msgr. Bilinsky.

“He had no fingernails,” Msgr. Bilinsky said. “He had been in prison, and they pulled his nails out.”

Raising local support

For the last 10 months, Msgr. Bilinsky has marshaled resources from across the Archdiocese of New Orleans to send relief money back to his people. In his retirement, he helps with Masses and funerals at Mary Queen of Peace in Mandeville. His trustworthy appeals have raised more than $325,000 from churches in the West St. Tammany Deanery. Recently, he raised another $18,000 for people to buy 48 generators for the winter.

The generators are bought in Poland and then driven to villages – away from the main city center of Kiev – where the need is great.

“The priests are able to take the generators and distribute them,” Msgr. Bilinsky said. “One generator can take care of two homes. The homes are only 900 square feet.”

Supporting his friends

Msgr. Bilinsky also is buoyed by the ministry of three Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests whom he mentored for three consecutive summers in the early 2000s when they were seminarians doing pastoral work at Mary Queen of Peace.

Two of the priests are married – which is permitted in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church – and the other, Father Andriy Kymiak, will be ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Kiev on Feb. 19. Each of his former seminarian friends is doing incredible work, Msgr. Bilinsky said.

“I am proud to say that our priests live like the people,” Msgr. Bilinsky said. “The priests have been told by the bishops of the various dioceses that the churches must be open for people if they lose their homes. They have to give them living space within the church. The patriarch (Sviatoslav Shevchuk) has left Kiev only once – and that was to meet Pope Francis.”

Food is at a premium, Msgr. Bilinsky said, but in the villages, people are getting by because they have been able to can the vegetables and fruit they grew during the summer.

Msgr. Bilinsky is a realist and understands the situation in Ukraine may get worse before it gets better, but he is convinced the tide is turning.

“My hope is that this coming year will bring peace in Ukraine,” he said.

Those wishing to help Msgr. Bilinsky collect additional aid for the people of Ukraine can send donations to the Archdiocese of New Orleans, 7887 Walmsley Ave., New Orleans, LA 70125. Write “Ukraine Relief” on the memo line.

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