Fr. Eugen Blaj sends this update to our national director and communications manager to update our supports on the current situation of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and how they are desperately trying to comfort and support refugees fleeing across the border from Ukraine into Romania.
Provide emergency relief and pastoral support for refugees fleeing Ukraine
Catholic Mission, as the Australian agency of the worldwide network of the Pontifical Mission Societies, is responding to an urgent call for help from its mission partners in Poland and Romania who are desperately trying to comfort and support refugees fleeing across the border from Ukraine.
An update from Rev. Eugen Blaj
The refugee centres are crowded
Local parishioners are doing what they can to provide mattresses, bedsheets, pillows, and food, as well as nappies and basic sanitary items
Local parishioners are providing emergency relief and pastoral support
“The majority are women with children, trying to save their life from the war” says Fr Eugen
In Romania, local parishioners are providing emergency relief and pastoral support, amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis, says Rev. Eugen Blaj, National Director, PMS Romania.
“The majority are women with children, trying to save their life from the war,” he says.
The refugee centres are crowded, and the services basic, and local parishioners are doing what they can to provide mattresses, bedsheets, pillows, and food, as well as nappies and basic sanitary items, says Fr Eugen.
Fr Eugen says families are torn apart, speaking of a mother who arrived with her small children and grandmother, seeking a place to sleep.
“I asked about her husband,” Fr Eugen says. “With tears in her eyes, she told me that the men from 18 years above are taken in the war, and maybe their house is destroyed. It is a lot of pain (for the refugees). If you ask them something, they start to cry,” he says.
In Poland, they are receiving refugees in their local parishes, and at the PMS chapel they pray for world peace. Grateful for the support from Australia, Fr. Maciej Bedzinski, National Director of the PMS in Poland says, “This shows that the PMS are one big family, a missionary family”.
“The ongoing prayer and material support for those affected by these tragic circumstances is an expression of the solidarity of the universal church as we reach out to bring hope and give life to those so much in need,” says Fr Brian Lucas, National Director of Catholic Mission in Australia.-
Catholic Mission will use donations to support the immediate and ongoing needs of our mission partners in Europe working with the people of Ukraine. Any funds raised above and beyond the needs of our mission partners will support other similar Catholic Mission projects in areas of most need.