BEGGING FOR PEACE FOR THE WORLD
LIDIA DUDKIEWICZ, the editor-in chief of Niedziela
I remember great joy which was accompanying monks and believers gathered at Jasna Góra on 21 October 2002, during a morning Holy Mass, during which Fr. Izydor Matuszewski, the General of the Pauline Order then, made sanctification of the copy of the Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Jasna Góra, designed for Mariupol in eastern Ukraine. He used to send Polish monks there so that they would spread cult to Mary and build a sanctuary of Our Lady of Częstochowa. At that time no one supposed that they were going on a war and that people would be killed in their eyes.
Fr. Arnold Chrapkowski, the current general supervisor of the Pauline Order, informed on these days that despite martial actions taking place in the Pauline facility in Mariupol, Fr. Paweł Tomaszewski is still there, with whom he is in a permanent contact via phone. Because of stronger war actions, he and the prior of Jasna Góra, Fr. Marian Waligóra, called for intensifying a prayer for peace in the world and for stopping persecution of the Christians. From 22 February 2015, that is, from the first Sunday of the Lent, a special intention is added to the hitherto prayers at Jasna Góra for peace, during every-day Holy Mass for Homeland, celebrated at 3.30 pm, and supplications are sung: ‘Holy God, Holy and Powerful…’.
Moreover, a lot is said about Ukraine in relation to the visit ‘ad limina Apostolorum’ of bishops of Greek-Catholic and Latin rite from Ukraine which has just finished. ‘I beg Lord for quick peace and I appeal to everybody who is interested in it, to implement achieved agreements and respect the rule of compatibility with the international law’ – wrote the Holy Father Francis in his message addressed to Ukrainian bishops.
The Kyiv-Halych archbishop the grand, Światosław Szewczuk, being in a group of bishops participating in the visit ‘ad limina’, during a meeting with journalists in Rome said directly that Ukraine is pursuing a severe fight with the outer aggressor and needs help from the whole civilized world. For its inhabitants were touched by the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in the post-war history. The auxiliary bishop of Charkowsko-Zaporowska diocese Jan Sobiło explained in an interview for the Vatican radio station that in Ukraine there is an utopian war about the Soviet Union.
In relation to the war behind our eastern border, we are thinking more and more frequently how safe Poland is today. In the opinion of the gen. Stanisław Koziej, the chief of the National Safety Office, it is impossible to exclude an invasion of Russia onto Poland although a variant of a regular war is less probable because of NATO. Whereas a hybrid war is possible. The chief of the National Safety Office considers a conflict, in which Russian armies will hide behind anonymous people pursuing terroristic actions. Recently we have been concerned about the growing Russian propaganda in Poland and whole Europe. Internet Russian radio ‘Sputnik’ in Polish language is already functioning, and the Polish version of the Russian informative portal ‘Sputnik’ has also been established. So, the Jasna Góra prayer alarm is very needed by Ukraine, Poland and the whole world today.
AA
„Niedziela” 9/2015