Second Knights of Columbus novena for Ukraine urges prayers 'for hope' for the country

KRAKOW, Poland (OSV News) -- As the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine approaches Feb. 24, the Knights of Columbus called for prayers " for hope for Ukraine" and launched a novena Feb. 15 to pray for widows, youth, orphans, veterans and all those affected by the full-scale Russian invasion.

It's the second time the Knights have asked the world to pray a novena for Ukraine, with the first launched prior to the second anniversary of the war.

"It's a novena of solidarity with our 3,000 brother Knights and their families in Ukraine," Szymon Czyszek, director of international growth in Europe for the Knights of Columbus, told OSV News. "It's a free gift that everyone can hand to the suffering Ukrainian nation," he said.

"After three years of war, it is easy to fall into indifference to the daily reports of the tragic situation in Ukraine. However, as Knights of Columbus and as Catholics, we cannot allow our hearts to become indifferent. Nor can we accept evil as normal," said Marek Zietek, leader of the Knights in Poland.

"By praying for peace and for the victims of this war -- widows, orphans, the wounded, fallen soldiers and refugees -- we want to awaken people's consciences anew," he added.

The final day of the novena will fall on Feb. 23, the eve of the anniversary of the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Asked "What do we need to heal war-stricken Ukraine?" by the Knights before the launch of the novena, the apostolic nuncio in Ukrainie, Lithuanian Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, said, "We need, above all, hope and faith. So please, do not stop praying for us."

President Donald Trump said Feb. 12 he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, started by Russia as it invaded the East European country on Feb. 24, 2022, eight years after it occupied the Crimea peninsula.

Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his call with Putin, with the Ukrainian president saying upon arrival at the Munich Security Conference Feb. 14 that his talks so far with Trump are "definitely not enough to form a plan" for peace, according to the BBC.

Archbishop Kulbokas for his part said that Catholics, thinking of Ukraine, "don't need to look for any political words."

He said, "It's just that we, as believers, pray, we ask for the Lord's mercy ... we believe together, and we express it and show it." To show that the entire religious community of the world "is together, with Ukraine and with other countries against the war, I think that this can be a very powerful message for politicians and for aggressors."

The first day of the novena, in the prayer for widows, asks that the Lord "fill the wounds of their hearts with the oil of grace, particularly the virtues of faith, hope and love." On day three, the prayer for parents who have lost their children during the war asks God to "strengthen their hearts and faith." On day eight, participants pray "for all those in captivity, that the Lord may give them endurance, help them remember they are not forgotten and strengthen their hearts in hope."

The novena was written by a young Ukrainian woman who lives in Poland and "is prepared in such a way that it can be recited regardless of the date, including after the third anniversary" of the war, the Knights said.

"Just recently I was in Auschwitz to commemorate my grandfather who was a prisoner in the German death camp," Czyszek told OSV News. "And my thought, after so many trips I made to Ukraine, was this -- the world keeps repeating 'never again,' and then we see Bucha and those images of ethnic cleansing come back again in history in real time, in front of our eyes."

Czyszek said that during his last trip to Ukraine at the beginning of February, he visited Bucha.

In April 2022, as Russian forces failed to capture Kyiv, the world learned of the horrors of Russian occupation of the village in the outskirts of Kyiv, with dozens of civilian bodies strewn along one of its main streets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the scene as "a provocation," but in December that same year The New York Times revealed findings of its visual investigation: "The perpetrators of the massacre along Yablunska Street were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment led by Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov."

The Times said, "The evidence shows that the killings were part of a deliberate and systematic effort to ruthlessly secure a route to the capital, Kyiv."

Czyszek said one scene especially touched him as the Knights were handing warm winter jackets to families in Bucha last October. There, he met a young widow with a little child.

"She told me that she is grateful because her husband, one of Bucha's defenders who was captured and killed by Russians, would be 'at peace' if he saw that his family gets such attention and care," Czyszek said.

"It's for those people we need to pray, for their strength, for their hope, for their return to normal lives," Czyszek told OSV News.

Individuals featured in short films produced by the Knights of Columbus "have been personally wounded by the war and represent each of the groups for whose intentions the novena will be prayed." The text of the novena can be found at the Knights of Columbus website along with their short films.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest organization of Catholic men, has collected over $24 million in contributions from over 68,300 donors, helping over 2 million people.