‘Finding Room in Your Heart’

The annual Warriors to Lourdes pilgrimage has become an opportunity to show spiritual solidarity with Ukrainian soldiers defending their homeland

By Tomasz Adamski

Feb. 7, 2024

Finding Room in Your Heart — Members of the Ukrainian delegation to the International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes, including several mothers of fallen soldiers, wave their national flag during a ceremony on the sanctuary’s esplanade in May 2023. (Photo by Tamino Petelinšek)

Pilgrims to Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in France often describe it as a place full of joy and peace. Therefore, the sight of thousands of military personnel processing through the shrine in uniform may be jarring to some.

For the Knights of Columbus, this sight, although unusual, is not surprising. Service members and veterans from dozens of countries have been coming to Lourdes to pray for peace and healing for more than 60 years — an annual event called the Pèlerinage Militaire International (International Military Pilgrimage) — and the Order has been helping them take part through its Warriors to Lourdes program for nearly a decade.

Ukrainian soldiers march into the Basilica of St. Pius X for the closing Mass of the International Military Pilgrimage to Lourdes in May 2023. *(Photo by Tamino Petelinšek)*

The apparent contrast between the joyful peace of Lourdes and the martial atmosphere of the PMI gained a new dimension two years ago with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The war in Ukraine, just 1,400 miles east of Lourdes, is the first large-scale conflict in Europe since the war that first inspired the military pilgrimage, World War II.

“One of the backdrops of this gathering is certainly the war in Ukraine,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio, head of Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, commented during last year’s PMI, held May 10-15, 2023. “I think the notion that in 2023 we can have a war in Europe is almost beyond the pale of understanding. One of my intentions coming on this pilgrimage is to beg for peace in Ukraine.”

The war has changed the general ambience of Warriors to Lourdes, and inspired pilgrims to search for additional expressions of solidarity with their brethren from Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers have been making pilgrimages to Lourdes for almost 30 years, and they have been able to do so since 2015 with the help of the Order. Jesuit Father Andriy Zelinskyy, chief deputy of the Military Chaplaincy Department of the Patriarchal Curia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that without the support of the Knights, continuing the tradition — especially in current circumstances — would be impossible.

“We wouldn’t be able to do it without the Knights of Columbus. … It’s a very important ministry that they do for us, and we appreciate it so much,” he said.

Ukraine has sent a small group of soldiers, military chaplains and mothers of fallen soldiers to Lourdes each of the last two years. Due to the worsening situation on the front, sending a bigger delegation was not an option.

“During the war, it’s more difficult to get permission to participate,” explained Col. Oleksandr Melnyk, head of pastoral affairs for the Military Chaplaincy Department of the UGCC Patriarchal Curia.

A rosary, a bottle of holy water from Lourdes and a prayer card to Blessed Michael McGivney were among the items included in the prayer sets for Ukrainian soldiers. *(Photo by Tamino Petelinšek)*

In both 2022 and 2023, Warriors to Lourdes pilgrims showed their spiritual support for Ukraine by preparing several thousand prayer sets for Ukrainian soldiers defending their country. The sets included rosaries, water from Lourdes and prayer cards to Our Lady of Lourdes and Blessed Michael McGivney printed in Ukrainian. U.S. pilgrims signed the prayer cards, and Archbishop Broglio blessed the sets before they began the long journey to Ukraine.

The Knights worked with American soldiers deployed in Germany, from where the packages were sent to Kraków, Poland. Ultimately, the sets crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border in one of the K of C Charity Convoys — semi-trucks that since the beginning of the invasion have regularly delivered humanitarian aid provided by the Order.

Paul Zepernick, a U.S. military veteran and Knight who was instrumental in coordinating the 2023 delivery, said the project exemplified the Order’s founding principles, particularly unity.

“We all have our nations, but we’re able to unite in one path, one unity that is centered on God and on what is just,” explained Zepernick, district master of the 1st Military Overseas District in Europe. “Our ability to work with the Knights of Columbus in Poland, and then their ability to hand the sets off to the Knights in Ukraine — it shows the power of unity and what can be accomplished.”

Ukrainian Knights distributed some of the sets among veterans and visited hospitals to give them to wounded soldiers.

However, the main distribution took place during various meetings and pilgrimages, primarily the National Pilgrimage of Military Chaplains and Families to Zarvanytsia — one of the largest shrines in Ukraine and the most important center of Marian devotion in the Ukraine Greek Catholic Church. The pilgrimage took place Sept. 17-18, 2023, and, as usual, drew hundreds of participants.

State Deputy Youriy Maletskiy explained that spiritual support from fellow military personnel is especially valuable for Ukrainian soldiers.

“It is very important that our military receive such signs of solidarity and support,” Maletskiy said. “And it’s important for them to know that the values that they defend will continue to exist — including the freedom to pray in the language they want to pray in.”

Bishop Koltun lead Pilgrims in Prayer — Bishop Mykhailo Koltun leads pilgrims in prayer during the National Pilgrimage of Military Chaplains and Families in Zarvanytsia, Ukraine, in September 2023. Bishop Koltun is head of the Military Chaplaincy Department of the Patriarchal Curia of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. *(Photo courtesy of the Military Chaplaincy Department, Patriarchal Curia, UGCC)*

Preparing and delivering the sets was another example of the international, Orderwide chain of solidarity that has existed since the beginning of the war.

Ukrainian Knights and military staff expressed their gratitude.

“I assure you that [signs of] solidarity for Ukraine in these circumstances of war are extremely valuable and important,” said Col. Melnyk, a member of the St. Volodymyr Council 15800 in Kyiv. “And we felt that way [in Lourdes]!” he added.

Father Zelinskyy is especially grateful for this creative way of conveying solidarity. Since 2014, when Russia invaded the Donbas region of Ukraine, he has spent four years with soldiers in combat, where he saw tremendous demand for spiritual support.

“It’s deeper than only tactical and strategical issues; it’s also about good and evil. We are witnesses to injustice and violence from the aggressor that we haven’t seen in the past 60 years in European history,” he said. “We’ve been witnesses to something very inhumane.”

Father Zelinskyy also emphasized that solidarity is a Christian virtue that can show the way to all faithful who are willing to help — both collectively as a local community, parish or council — and individually.

“Solidarity is a very spiritual practice. It means finding room in your heart for those who suffer,” he explained. “When you find a place in your heart, you’ll find enough capacities in your mind and in your hands to find a proper way to help and support.”

To learn more about the Order’s efforts to help Ukraine, visit kofc.org/ukraine.

*****

TOMASZ ADAMSKI writes from Kraków, Poland, where he is a member of Blessed Father Michał Sopoćko Council 17667.