A Shoulder To Lean On

Knights in Ukraine partner with the International Catholic Migration Commission to help victims of war

By Mateusz Parkasiewicz

Feb. 18, 2026

Men unload medical supplies from a Knights of Columbus Charity Convoy at a hospital in Izmail, Ukraine, on Aug. 6. (Photo by Father Volodymyr Zhuk)

It is easy to talk to others about carrying the cross — to stand over a suffering person and advise him in a preachy tone to unite his suffering with the suffering of Christ. But how distant this is from a love of neighbor that actively assists in the hardships of life. Today, as refugees continue to flow from Ukraine’s bombed-out cities and crowds of veterans return from the front lines, they are in great need of both compassion and active aid.

To respond to that need, the Knights of Columbus is working closely with the International Catholic Migration Commission, the international organization that coordinates Catholic efforts to serve migrants and refugees.

The Knights’ partnership with the ICMC began in summer 2022: “It all started the day the ICMC contacted the Ukrainian Knights about helping internally displaced persons,” explained Youriy Maletskiy, past state deputy of Ukraine. “The fact that Msgr. Robert Vitillo, the commission’s secretary general, and his deputy, Christian Kostko, are Knights of Columbus of course facilitated the cooperation.”

Mental health is a priority of the commission’s work in Ukraine, and one of its first projects with the Knights was a psychological assistance program for combat veterans and their families.

In recent months, the Knights has also been working with the ICMC to support hospitals in the exarchate of Odesa in southern Ukraine: providing them with medical equipment, creating chapels in medical facilities and buying liturgical vessels and vestments for hospital chaplains.

“We received a great deal of aid for our hospitals,” said Father Oleksandr Bilskyi, chairman of the Health Care Commission of the Odesa Exarchate, who works with both the ICMC and the Knights in his role. “Together we were able to equip four hospitals with equipment of various kinds, to support those places where people affected by the war are being treated.”

Aid — including hospital beds and medicine — has gone to hospitals in Liubashivka, Pivdennoukrainsk, Chornomorsk and elsewhere. The hospital in Chornomorsk also received an ambulance, presented Oct. 21 by Supreme Chaplain Archbishop William Lori during his recent visit to Ukraine.

Maletskiy has visited the hospitals with Bishop Mykhaylo Bubniy, the exarch of Odesa, and met with patients and staff.

“The thing that really stuck with us was the women who work in those hospitals, whose sons are now at the front defending our country,” he said. “It was very touching; they were overwhelmed with gratitude, but they also realized that they were not alone.”

Bishop Bubniy noted the impact that similar initiatives have had on the image of the Catholic Church in Ukraine. In regions of the country where the Orthodox Church is dominant, the Catholic Church’s work is not widely known. Now, Ukrainian society is beginning to recognize its contributions.

“The Catholic Church has grown in the eyes of the city government day by day,” the bishop said. “Now, when Father Bilskyi talks to me, he says: ‘Bishop, I go to the city council as if I work there! They call me, they want to listen to me.’”

However, the work of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in southern and eastern Ukraine is not easy, even apart from the war.

“It’s no secret that we are considered proselytes here,” Bishop Bubniy said. “The Russian Orthodox Church called this territory — southern, eastern and central Ukraine — its ‘canonical territory.’ This means that no one has the right to operate here except them. They did not take into account the fact that believers of different faiths move in search of work or education and settle in these areas. They too need spiritual care.”

The charitable work of the Knights and the ICMC in the region’s hospitals may be opening the door to greater freedom of faith.

“Previously, our activities were blocked by the Russian Orthodox Church,” the bishop said. “However, thanks to this charity action, we were given the opportunity to enter hospitals to serve the wounded.”

The Order worked with the commission and the exarchate to create chapels in four medical facilities. It has also provided the exarchate’s 10 hospital chaplains with traveling Mass kits.

“I want to give a big, human ‘thank you’ to the Knights of Columbus,” said Bishop Bubniy. “For their cooperation, for their solidarity, for the fact that they understand our needs here in what I would call the mission field. That they are not indifferent, that they responded so gladly. In fact, during the war, the Knights were among the first to support refugees and displaced persons with food packages.”

“Knights are the ones who keep us on our feet, so that we don’t fall,” said Father Bilskyi. “I always say that the Knights community is such a shoulder to lean on, to cry on, to counsel, and who will support you in any situation.”

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MATEUSZ PARKASIEWICZ writes from Kraków, Poland.