SUDBURY — Light shines through the blue and yellow stained glass of Saint Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church as Father Peter Bodnar speaks in Ukrainian. His theme is faith and forgiveness. “We were praying for Ukraine,” Bodnar tells TVO.org after the Sunday service. “We were praying for peace. We were praying to not give up. After the thunder, the sun always comes out. Ukrainian people have such courage and faith. There will be a day where we celebrate independence again.”
During the service, Bodnar, an ethnic Ukrainian from Poland, breaks from speaking in Ukrainian to tell a story in English: in attendance is an 80-year-old from Fauquier, five hours north of Sudbury, who had travelled to North Bay to fly to Ukraine, he says. The man had wanted to fight in the war, but his daughter intercepted him. “He said, ‘My place is in Ukraine, not here,’” Bodnar tells the churchgoers.
Sudbury's Ukrainian Seniors' Centre. (Nick Dunne)
Toward the end, Bodnar returns to English again to share an update: the church has raised more than $10,000 for humanitarian aid through Caritas, a Catholic charity, since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. (The amount has since risen to more than $20,000.)
Sudbury’s Ukrainian community, the roots of which go back to the city’s early mining days in the 1900s has come together to support friends and relatives overseas. The Ukrainian Seniors’ Centre, which sells homemade perogies and cabbage rolls, is donating the proceeds of its sales to humanitarian aid and matching the sales in donations. The Sudbury branch of the Ukrainian National Federation, which helped organize a rally earlier this month, is planning more fundraising efforts and will host seminars for those interested in sponsoring refugees.
TVO.org asked three Ukrainian Sudburians about the invasion of Ukraine and how their families in Europe are faring.
Sonia Peczeniuk, 68, secretary of the Ukrainian National Federation’s Sudbury branch
Sonia Peczeniuk (left) with her mother, Jaroslawa Peczeniuk. (Nick Dunne)
This is my mother, Jaroslawa Peczeniuk. She's 95 years old. She went through World War II in Ukraine. She was taken as a child into forced labour into the German munitions factories and then picking potatoes at night.
She and my father immigrated to Sudbury, where we have always lived. My father had done some scouting, and he knew that there was a Ukrainian community here. A lot of displaced people came to Sudbury because the men could find work in the mining industry. They became a community because they could speak their language and learn how to speak English together. Ukraine is such a beautiful country, and part of the reason Canadian Ukrainians like Canada is the geography — it reminds them of their homeland. Ukraine has the steppes, like the Prairies; it has mountainous areas like in northern Ontario and British Columbia.
Part of why Ukrainians are upset is they have seen the same scenario developing exactly like what transpired in the early in the 1930s and ’40s. What also upsets people is that they know history tends to repeat itself. Stalin did not like an independent Ukraine, and he was determined to destroy the peasants and the farmers because they resisted collectivization in the early ’30s. What did he do? A genocide: Holodomor.
We're very frustrated that Western leaders have been slow to respond. If you have lived through that, it's in your family history — the atrocities and human-rights abuses that have occurred in that country under Soviet subjugation — then you know this is not a joke.
Valentyna Stasiv, 56, Ukrainian-language teacher
Valentyna Stasiv moved to Canada in 2015. (Nick Dunne)
I was born in Ukraine. I have been living in Canada for six years. I am a Ukrainian teacher. I’m learning English, but it is hard. On February 24, I was going to bed, but the next thing I know my husband is listening to the radio. When I called my family, who live in western Ukraine, they said they were hearing explosions going off. And the children were rattled, crying. My family are all dressed in winter attire, living in basements; their suitcases and documents are packed. They’re ready to disappear and go to the Polish border on a moment’s notice.
Lviv is major city in western Ukraine. It’s overloaded with refugees coming from the east.
In Ukraine, women who are pregnant are giving birth in the metro. People are sleeping on the streets; they're all waiting for the train to take them to Poland. I have family in Odessa, where the Russians are moving in tanks. The people who are there are saying, “These are young Russian soldiers” and — typical Ukrainians — they’re saying, “We have to feed them.”
I thank Canada. But I want to be in Ukraine. My heart wants to be there. I feel awful that I can’t do anything.
Peter Bodnar, 51, priest at Saint Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church
Peter Bodnar has been with Saint Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church since 2004. (Nick Dunne)
I'm Ukrainian from Poland. After World War II, my parents ended up in Polish territory. When I was 18, I wanted to explore the world, and that’s how I ended up in Canada.
It's overwhelming to see the support of neighbours. Poland is becoming a safe haven for refugees. I've been talking to my family, and they say they are opening their homes for kids and women from Ukraine — our relatives, cousins, whoever needs shelter during this time of war.
In the past week, what hit was realization that this still feels like a dream, that it’s not really happening. We knew that Putin always wanted part of Ukraine because it has rich natural resources. We knew that when he took over Crimea, he wasn’t going to stop. But when this happened, we were in shock and disbelief. We still could not believe that this was reality. But when we talk to family members who are in Ukraine, and when they tell us that they have to shelter from the bombs and rockets, that's the reality.
Churches are always a neutral place, welcoming everyone. A place of refuge. And for the past few days, we’ve had so many people from non-Ukrainian community joining us, showing their solidarity, standing with Ukraine and praying with us — which is lifting us so much.
Saint Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church is located on Notre Dame Avenue, in Sudbury. (Nick Dunne)
Faith gives us hope and allows us to rise above. The body is weak, but the spirit is strong. You can see that in Ukraine. For example, 80-year-old, 90-year-old babushkas standing in front of tanks, saying “No, I would rather die than let you in my town or my village.” That's faith. No adversary can conquer faith. Faith can conquer evil with goodness. And faith gives us that strength to see in other human beings a person, not an enemy. We look at them as another person, not as an enemy, even though that person encroaches on our sovereignty. We will look at another human being, but we're going to defend ourselves. That’s why we pray. Today, we prayed for the people of Russia, who are also victims of the regime. And that's where the faith comes to help us.
These interviews have been condensed and edited for length and clarity.
This is one in a series of stories about issues affecting northeastern Ontario. It's brought to you with the assistance of Laurentian University.
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