In 1945-46, Stalin set out to liquidate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. A Church of four million people was destroyed in all of its public manifestations. Its leadership was arrested, exiled and killed. Remnants continued to operate clandestinely in the catacombs. Many others experienced untold suffering under Soviet rule.

We recall these events not only to remember the horrors of the past, but also to understand how they condition what Ukraine is and who Ukrainians are today.

The impact of authoritarian or totalitarian rule is long-lasting. It’s like radiation: you can’t see it, smell it or taste it, but its effects are lethal, creating a cancer on society, mutating the God-given gift and vocation for human interaction and relations. We human beings, created in God’s image and likeness, are endowed with the capacity to relate and interact, to give and receive, to trust. How to restore trust in a society that has been so broken? How to recreate confidence in people who have suffered unspeakable violence and wanton corruption?