Father Andre: Thank you, Ukraine, for your efforts to defend your country and to say no to a dictator

Founded in 1959, the Dormition Parish is a church community of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon.

The Ukrainian Catholic Parish of the Dormition of the Blessed Mother of God became the third Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Saskatoon.

Here they do not just believe but direct the power of prayer to stop the war, defeat evil, and bring peace to Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Catholic parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has chosen to help Ukraine and Ukrainians fleeing the war to Canada as their main activity.

It is worth noting that Ukrainians in Canada are not refugees, like citizens of Syria or Iran. Ukrainians of the last wave of migration are persons receiving temporary asylum. From this, it follows that they must work to live, which is mostly quite hard, so the parish tries to do everything to ease rather difficult situations for Ukrainians.

The church still has volunteers who devote most of their time to helping Ukrainian citizens who came to Saskatoon.

Priest Father Andre shared with us his thoughts on what is happening in the context of the war in Ukraine.

Can we say that Ukrainian Catholics have become the core of the preservation of Ukrainian identity in North America, and why did this happen?

I would say it’s one way of preserving Ukrainian heritage and culture.

I would say Ukrainian Orthodox, in terms of churches, have all done a lot of work in terms of preserving culture and language.

Like, for example, across the street, is it was a Bishop Full Levites School, and for the moment 30% students there are Ukrainian Orthodox. And then the rest, they either have Ukrainian ancestry, or they don’t, or coming from other traditions, maybe atheist or whatever. I wouldn’t say that we’re Canadian Catholics, who are the only preservers of Ukrainian Heritage and culture and language. I would say that we contribute towards that, and we’re not the only ones that do that.

What is the relationship between Ukrainian Catholics and OCU both in Canada and in general?

I can’t speak too much about our relationship with the Orthodox in the world. I know that the general picture is love.

You know, God is very keen on you looking for ways to find unity with the Orthodox. And what’s the same? We try to do that here, so when we have common celebrations for Ukrainian culture, like, for example, there’s an event here called Ukraine Day in the park, usually, it’s every August.

And sometimes they will begin with a prayer, whether it’s Catholics and Orthodox together or when we commemorate the water Baptism. We have common prayer services together. We work in parallel; every now and then we come together, but most of the time we’re working differently.

From what I understand, most of the Orthodox are Ukrainian Orthodox here in Canada. Many were Ukrainian Catholics when they came to Canada. Then, when they came to Canada, there were arguments in the community, so people split away, left the Catholic Church, and built their own Orthodox Church. Lots of Orthodox people here in Canada used to be Catholic.

Yeah, that’s one thing. Many used to be Catholics. They’re in their family.

Is it a Moscow parish or a Ukrainian one?

It’s a Ukrainian Orthodox parish. There are three Ukrainian Catholic churches here. Here is the cathedral, Saint George, and Saint Peter and Paul, and then there’s the Ukrainian Orthodox Holy Trinity, which is close to where you live. It’s on 20th and Avenue J. And then there’s one over here. It’s called All Saints. So there are two Orthodox and three Catholic churches in Saskatoon.

For obvious reasons, Ukrainian emigration to Canada is growing and changing today. How do you approach new arrivals?

I remember initially when there was a first wave, then the invasion happened and people started arriving again.

There is such an organization, the Congress of Ukrainians of Canada. They were and are very involved and welcoming to newcomers. They were very involved into it and I think they still are to some extent.

We are very happy in our community, and we are proud to have such a person as Nadia Stadnyk.

Nadia had a heart from the very beginning. That’s why it’s valuable to our community. She took on a lot of authority; worked with the Congress of Ukrainians of Canada. There used to be a place called “Babyna Komirchyna” where people could take clothes, furniture or anything else.

You need someone; you know you need a community. You need someone who can help directly. And so it was a great blessing for us because Ukrainians knew that people were making efforts to help welcome new arrivals to Canada.

What is your opinion about the Canadian migrant policy?

You asked about Canadian immigration policy. I think this is an interesting question. Earlier today there were two women from Barbados. They now live in the neighborhood, and they went for a walk, went in, wanted to see the church, and we talked – they are both waiting to receive the right to permanent residence.

And now it’s a problem. Especially for Ukrainians. First of all, they had to find a good employer who will sign papers for permanent residence. Not everyone signs these papers. So people worked for them, and those jobs weren’t always great. They have worked for a long time, lost the opportunity to go work in other places with better jobs, because they are forced to stay with the employer who is going to sign their documents.

And that, I think, is problematic because it puts the employee in a bad position. They work, they work, they work, they work, and then, in the end, they still don’t seem to get better. You know, I mean, I don’t know if this is the answer to that question or not, but I think there are some ways that immigration could be greatly improved because most people, most new arrivals from Ukraine, that I’ve met are willing to work hard and they’re good people, you know, and they wanted to choose the right employers, and I feel like they’re being taken advantage of sometimes. Because of the way the system works, I am concerned about this.

The other day I was in a meeting with my bishop, Michael. And we talked about this recent change in immigration. And I said that we as a church should be the protectors of many of these people because they are new in the country and don’t know who to talk to and how to solve this problem. So, in my opinion, this biggest problem needs to be solved.

Could the “mainland” Ukraine help the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada?

I think that the church in Ukraine has already helped the church here a lot.

Because for a long period we lacked priests here. They studied in Canada. So, for decades, most of our priests have served here in Saskatchewan.

A word from Ukraine. So that was a big help. I mean, it helped sustain the church here in Canada. Not only in Saskatchewan, but across Canada, even in Toronto in the Diocese of Toronto. I would say that most of the priests are from Ukraine. In Saskatchewan, not so many, but we have several priests who were born in Ukraine and have been serving for years. So that’s one way.

I think the other way is people go to church here. We heard here stories about how people suffered for their faith in Ukraine. How people went to celebrate holidays in the forest.

Yes, or to someone’s apartment, you know, and in communist times they could be arrested, or killed, or whatever, right? So, we heard these stories and I remember growing up and hearing them and it was very inspiring. These people are ready to die for their faith. We are free to do whatever we want. And as you know, nobody is going to arrest us for going to church.

As we can see, has your church helped and is helping new arrivals from Ukraine? How difficult is it?

We were very blessed in our community. We talked about Nadya (Stadnyk – ed.)

And we have other people who have helped pick people up, transport people, or deliver stuff to their homes. We have a lot of people who do that.

But I think that it was different at the very beginning. So when the attack happened, it was February 2022, and by March 2022, someone in our church, even someone in Saskatoon, heard about it.

And the people weren’t even in church, and they’ve written checks. 15,000 dollars. They gave it to our church and said, please do whatever you can to help the newcomers, here’s some money for it. And then other people contributed, so I think within the last two years, in terms of funding, probably about $40,000 has been raised.

Not just from people in this church community, but from the wider community, and it’s allowed us to help different families, give $500, $400, which helped send kids to the summer camp. Last summer there was a summer camp, and this summer we were able to help Ukrainians pay for it.

And finally. What words would you like to say to Ukrainians in Ukraine?

The first thing I would say…Thank you for your efforts to protect your country and say no to the dictator. To someone who disregards the value of human life and only thinks about power and control, I appreciate your efforts to say no to that, just as Jesus said no to the forces of evil.

The people of Ukraine are also doing this. This is an evil that affects the Ukrainian people. It is not pro-life; all he wants is death. So I am very grateful to the Ukrainian people, because if they had just said: “Oh!”, then you know what would have happened.

He would not stop only at Ukraine. He, you know, will want to continue grabbing more.

So, I think you should know that we remember all of you in prayer here almost every Sunday. We pray for peace. We pray for healing.

I met many newcomers who came here. And they have been through a lot of trauma, and we pray for the healing of those who are facing violence and trauma in Ukraine. Let people in Ukraine know that for their family members and friends who came here to Canada, we do everything possible to receive them and do everything to make them live well here. I know it’s hard, but we’re trying to do what we can.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for these words.

Maryna Kovalchuk, deputy editor-in-chief (Central Europe and Canada), and head of the V5 Media project, contributed.

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