As Germany tore up its historic post-Second World War policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones, a German bishop said Ukraine’s request for weapons was “understandable”, offering tacit approval to the volte-face.
Speaking at a Ukrainian-Catholic Mass in Hanover, Bishop Heiner Wilmer of Hildesheim, head of the Justice and Peace Commission in Germany, said: “President [Vladimir] Putin has resorted to massive military force against Ukraine in order to expand Russian territory. This is a clear breach of international law and a serious crime.”
Speaking to KNA, he said: “It is quite obviously a long-planned military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Its aim is to destroy Ukraine’s independence and get it under Russian influence. That is quite clearly a grave crime.”
Germany on Saturday reversed its policy of never sending weapons to conflict zones, saying the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an epochal moment that imperilled the entire post-Second World-War order across Europe. The decision was an abrupt change in course, coming after Berlin clung to its initial position for weeks.
Berlin will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti- aircraft defence systems to Ukraine and has authorised the Netherlands to send 400 rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
He could understand Ukraine’s request for weapons, Wilmer said. The export of weapons was a complex issue. “The benchmark we must go by is whether or not weapons lead to the containment of violence,” he said. According to canon and international law it was indisputable that Ukraine had a right to defend itself.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich has begged the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, to use his influence and persuade President Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
“I implore the Patriarch of Moscow to exert his influence on the president, so that the war stops and arms are laid down,” Marx said at a Ukrainian Catholic service in Munich on Sunday 27 February. “While we bishops are not politicians, it is our task and our duty to proclaim the Gospel’s message of peace – especially to those who are of the opinion that they can push their political aims on people with force and terror.”
Marx assured Ukrainian Catholics that they could count on the solidarity and aid of German Catholics. At the end of Mass, he and Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh in both Ukrainian and German together prayed the prayer for peace, which Pope John Paul II had prayed in 1991, the day before the beginning of the Iraq War.
Meanwhile, US Catholics responded with horror to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and offered a variety of expressions of solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Archbishop Borys Gudziak, who leads the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, visited the relics of St The´re`se of Lisieux, patroness of Russian Catholics.
“I went to pray there for the conversion of Vladimir Putin,” Gudziak said. “I prayed that through miraculous grace the Lord touch the heart of a man that is a sociopath, who’s killing, and who’s leading his own country and neighbours into an abyss.”
Gudziak called on American Catholics to stay engaged in the crisis.
“Americans can pray,” the archbishop said. “They can be critically informed and call out people who are enchanted by President Putin. And they can contribute to addressing the humanitarian crisis.”
In Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich joined Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk for divine liturgy at St Nicholas Ukrainian Cathedral on Sunday. The cardinal asked all Catholic churches to toll their bells at noon Sunday and again on Ash Wednesday.
“The people of the Archdiocese of Chicago stand with our brothers and sisters suffering under attack in Ukraine,” Cupich said. “Most of us know war in Europe from the stories of our parents and grand- parents, from history portrayed in films and books. This attack on a peaceful, sovereign nation is a sad reminder that the work of peace is never over.”
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark issued a statement reiterating Pope Francis’ call for a day of prayer and fasting, adding: “We must always reject war as a political solution and propose honest and respectful dialogue among nations as the only way forward.”
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