Ukrainians are fighting and dying. They have learned to do both from history, the best but most bitter of teachers.
They are fighting and surviving. History has taught them that, too.
Six years ago, to teach Canadians about the brave witness of Ukrainians during the Maidan “revolution of dignity,” I invited the head of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church, Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv, to Kingston, Ont., to address our annual St. John Fisher Dinner. He accepted, but was represented by Borys Gudziak, the president of the post-independence Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and then the Ukrainian Catholic bishop in Paris. Archbishop Gudziak is now the senior Ukrainian Catholic metropolitan bishop in the United States.
He told us the story of Ukraine in the 20th century; a story of death and resurrection. He spoke as a Christian disciple, to be sure, but also as a Ukrainian patriot. He came to bear witness that even in the bleakest situations, hope and courage are possible. Necessary, actually. Ukraine bore witness to this.
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