‘Pray for them’: A Canadian military chaplain reaches out to refugees fleeing war in Ukraine

Standing within the gray gentle of a chilly spring day outdoors Warsaw’s central prepare station lately, Lt-Col. Terry Cherwick — together with his black and white clerical collar jutting out of his fight uniform — appeared like a beacon for the bereft.

One among three Canadian navy chaplains dispatched earlier this month as a part of Canada’s mission to Poland to assist that nation handle the inflow of Ukrainian refugees, the Edmonton-based padre is performing a non secular responsibility in deeply private circumstances.

Cherwick is of Ukrainian descent himself and nonetheless has some prolonged household within the western a part of the war-torn nation. He stated his early encounters with frightened and war-weary refugees in Warsaw — a flood of girls, males and kids shuffling by way of the cavernous, trendy railroad station, mourning the useless and the wrecked properties they left behind — made a profound impression on him.

For a lot of deeply non secular Ukrainians, one thing occurs once they spot a priest’s collar.

“So many individuals see that signal and can come over and communicate with us, ask us to wish for them … to wish for his or her household,” stated Cherwick, a Ukrainian-Greek Catholic priest and a 29-year veteran of the navy.

It has been a humbling expertise — even for a chaplain who frolicked with Canadian troops within the killing fields of Kandahar. 

In Warsaw, Cherwick bears witness to these struggling to make sense of what has occurred to them. One man opened his cellphone to indicate the priest before-and-after pictures of his now-ruined house.

A message of hope

“There’s nothing left there, and , [he was] simply asking how he is gonna transfer ahead, how he is gonna transfer on,” stated Cherwick, who after a couple of minutes of dialog acquired the person speaking about returning and rebuilding.

Cherwick stated some refugees have instructed him that — with no time to rearrange funerals, no time to mourn — they needed to depart slain members of the family behind in Ukraine. They’ve requested him to wish for his or her family members.

However what are you able to say to somebody who has misplaced every thing?

“[I’m] undecided how a lot you’ll be able to say,” Cherwick stated. Most individuals do not come to him for solutions, he added; what they need is a reaffirmation of hope, a promise that “from dying can come life.”

It has been a privilege, he stated, “to supply them that signal of hope.”

Each Ukrainians and Russians noticed the Orthodox Easter over the weekend, viewing their warfare from vastly totally different views.

Patriarch Kirill (Cyril), chief of the Russian Orthodox Church, has supported the warfare. Over the weekend, he prayed for peace however averted criticizing Moscow’s self-described “particular navy operation.”

Russian troops have been accused of committing atrocities, together with the slaughter of unarmed civilians in Bucha outdoors of Kyiv and bomb assaults on hospitals all through the nation.

Within the face of such hypocrisy and horror, folks look to put blame, stated Cherwick. They need to know why such issues are permitted to occur.

‘Love, compassion and mercy’

Cherwick stated that whereas he hasn’t but confronted these questions, his two colleagues have had “profound discussions” with a number of the refugees they’ve met.

What helps these combating such profound questions, he stated, is the sort of “love, compassion and mercy” Ukrainian refugees are being welcomed with in Poland.

Lt.-Col. Mike Godard, the commander of the Canadian humanitarian mission in Poland, stated the folks right here have proven themselves to be “excellent neighbours” to the Ukrainians.

“It’s totally spectacular. It is … very uplifting to see,” Godard stated. He stated his troops are “doing no matter jobs must be carried out to assist make the refugees’ keep a bit bit extra comfy.”

The Liberal authorities has approved the deployment to Poland of between 100 and 150 troops for as much as three months. These troopers are helping the Polish Territorial Defence Power — composed largely of reservists — at refugee reception centres.

Medics, chaplains and different troops greet the displaced upon their arrival in Poland and assist them get settled and discover companies. Additionally they help those that need to transfer on to 3rd nations.

Many members of the Polish Territorial Defence Power are volunteers, part-timers with civilian jobs. Godard stated they’ve been working continuous within the two months since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Greater than 5 million folks have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded on Feb. 24, based on an announcement from the United Nations refugee company final week.

The exodus has far exceeded the Geneva-based group’s worst-case forecast of 4 million refugees — a grim milestone that was marked on the finish of March.

Greater than half of all Ukrainian refugees — 2.8 million — have fled to Poland. Some made Poland their first cease on their strategy to different nations. The nation has been beneficiant and sympathetic. Ukrainians are eligible for nationwide ID numbers that entitle them to work and to entry free well being care, education and bonuses for households with youngsters.

Indicators of assist are in every single place — from TV information anchors carrying blue and golden pins to public trams in Warsaw that rattle alongside the road with small Ukrainian flags mounted to their antenna masts.

Assembly with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in early March, Polish President Andrzej Duda warned his nation confronted “a deep, deep refugee disaster.” He known as on Canada to hurry up its refugee utility course of and to assist with managing the circulation of the displaced.

Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski instructed The Related Press final week that if the combating intensifies in Ukraine’s east and if there’s a second wave of refugees, his metropolis will be unable to settle for any extra folks.

There are about 300,000 warfare refugees in Warsaw, a metropolis of 1.8 million. A lot of the refugees are staying in non-public properties, Trzaskowski stated, including that whereas Warsaw residents anticipated to host refugees for a couple of months, they can not keep indefinitely.

Cherwick stated he is seen no signal of Polish residents rising impatient with the refugee burden.

“The Polish defence forces … they do not see them as refugees,” he stated. “They see them as visitors right here of their nation, and I feel that that very a lot sort of units the tone once they get right here. [The Ukrainians are] appreciative of the assistance that they are receiving.”