Cardinal Krajewski’s anger and pain before the graves of Ukrainian war victims

By Vatican news 

Emotion, despair, and deep anger: "How can young people still be dying in war in 2024? Lord, enough of this!" was Cardinal Konrad Krajewski’s reaction as he experienced an intense moment on Wednesday morning at the cemetery in Ternopil in western Ukraine.

The papal almoner was delivering an ambulance equipped as a mobile intensive care unit to the Zboriv District Hospital, along with various essential and life-saving medicines from the Vatican Pharmacy and the Pharmacy of the Gemelli Hospital.

The gifts from the Pope for the war-torn population are "a sign of love and hope," said the cardinal who is on his seventh visit to the country since the conflict began.

At the graves of young soldiers

The Polish cardinal arrived in Lviv on Tuesday and reached Ternopil on early on Wednesday. "I arrived in Ternopil very early," Krajewski said, "The parish priest was still asleep and not wanting to wake him, I went to the nearby cemetery where there was a section for newly buried soldiers. Young people, so many young people; under the crosses were their photos: 20-23-25 years old... I was deeply affected and also angry: how is it possible that young people are still dying in war in 2024? Lord, enough of this! It is unacceptable that the world produces weapons, everyone profits, and these young people lose their lives."

Mercy

That pain intensified when the cardinal saw a young woman arrive: "She stood not far from me, in front of her husband's grave, she was pregnant. My coat of arms bears the word: mercy... But today I struggled with mercy. Why do they still shoot? Why do they kill? Mercy, I know, is a scandal that surpasses justice and is the second name of God, but today it was difficult for me to apply this word. I was very angry in the cemetery in Ukraine. Then I remembered the words of the Litany of the Sacred Heart, and I thought I couldn't judge by worldly standards, and I calmed down."

"We humans," the cardinal added, "are capable of doing extraordinary things in the world, but also terrible things, without mercy, and this has been going on for over two years in Ukraine."

Inauguration of the "John Paul II" Rehabilitation Center

In addition to delivering the ambulance, Cardinal Krajewski inaugurated, together with local bishops, the "St. John Paul II" Rehabilitation Center in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kamyanets-Podilskyy.

The centre provides comprehensive physical and psychological rehabilitation for those who have suffered war traumas.

"Soldiers and families of those who return but are broken, come here, unable to live within their families and needing treatment," the almoner told Vatican Media.

"Opening this centre, I remembered a lesson from John Paul II: my friend is the person thanks to whom I get better. This facility aims to be a friend to those who suffer, to those who are broken, helping them through psychologists and psychiatrists to resume their lives."

The Pope's embrace

Cardinal Krajewski will return to Lviv, stopping along the way to visit various communities "to be with the people, bring them an embrace, a sign of hope from the Holy Father, to tell them that he prays for them during every audience and Angelus, that he does not forget them and stands close to them."

"Even the medicines brought here are a sign of love and hope," emphasized the cardinal, who recalled that since the conflict began in February 2022, 240 trucks filled with medicines, food, and clothing have been sent from Rome.

"The situation here remains terrible; there is shooting and the sound of sirens... But the good side of people helping and continuously supporting those who suffer for many months is also tangible."