Cardinal Czerny: 鈥淢eeting the refugees brings the war to our hearts"
By Benedict Mayaki, SJ
Cardinal Michael Czerny, the Prefect ad interim of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development has spent the last few days in Hungary, bringing the Holy Father鈥檚 closeness to the thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have fled across the borders in search of safety.
During these days, the Cardinal has met with volunteer aid workers, Church and civil authorities, and has been in concrete, personal contact with the traumatic experience of many Ukrainians who have left their homeland amid the war.
He also visited the Ukrainian city of Berehove, a city close to the border with Hungary and spared by the bombings, which is a gathering point for thousands of refugees on the move.
Seeing vs feeling the war
Speaking to Vatican News, Cardinal Czerny reflects on his experience and makes a distinction between reports about the war and the actual experience of meeting people affected by it.
鈥淚t is striking me more and more that to encounter the refugees is in fact to encounter the war,鈥� he says.
He notes that the images that we see on social media and on television only bring home the war 鈥渋n one sense鈥� 鈥� to our eyes.
But 鈥渢o meet the refugees brings the war to our hearts, to our feelings,鈥� he continues, 鈥渂ecause we feel their distress, their uprooting, their anxiety and the terrible loss of their lives, in the sense of the lives they knew - the home they knew, the work they knew.鈥�
The closeness of the Holy Father
Cardinal Czerny鈥檚 trip comes in the wake of 杏MAP导航 Francis鈥� words during the Angelus on 6 March when he appealed for peace and for the opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine. On that occasion the 杏MAP导航 also said that 鈥渢he Holy See is ready to do everything, to put itself at the service of this peace.鈥� It is on that note, that the Holy Father sent Cardinal Czerny to Hungary and Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner, to Poland as his envoys.
Cardinal Krajewski left for Poland on 7 March while Cardinal Czerny left for Hungary the next day.
As the mission comes to its close, Cardinal Czerny says he is positive that even without going to the front, he has 鈥渕et the war鈥� and has been able 鈥渢o bring the prayer and the solidarity of the Holy Father so close to where the suffering is actually taking place.鈥�
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