EUROPE/UKRAINE - Camillian missionaries: "Make Christ present by bringing a sign of hope to the sick"

Monday, 25 April 2022 refugees   orders  

Munkacs (Agenzia Fides) - "Among the Ukrainian refugees, many sick, due to their precarious health conditions, cannot move because they are confined to a hospital bed or in a wheelchair. There are lonely and abandoned people who have lost everything, even the support of their families because they have been enrolled in the army. Some just want to confess and pray". This is what Father Alfréd György, General Delegate of the Ministers of the Sick (also known as Camillians) in Austria says in an interview with Agenzia Fides, who, together with the lay Camillian Family of Austria and Hungary and Caritas Hungary, are helping thousands of Ukrainian refugees in the Munkacs area, a city in the west of the country.
Fr. Alfréd has been to Ukraine twice in the last month to give comfort and hope to the sick and those who fled. Especially around Munkács, Ungvar and Nagyszöllös and other cities in Transcarpathia. "Food and medicine - explains the religious - were purchased thanks to donations from Austria and Hungary. Many basic necessities are no longer available in Ukraine, or have a high price". However, it is not just a question of delivering supplies for material aid. Spiritual nourishment is also necessary: "It is important to listen to and support the sick with prayer, bringing them a sign of hope", observes Fr. Alfréd. "This - he continues - creates a deep spiritual bond with these people: in many cases, they pray for those who have been left behind in war zones or for those who have had to flee their homeland because of the bombing of their homes". "With our prayers - says Fr. György - we can help restore peace to our hearts, building a bridge of prayer from both sides, on the side of war and on the side of peace. Nations and countries - he continues - can be destroyed, but the kingdom of God that is born in us through prayer cannot be destroyed. From person to person, from soul to soul, we can meet in heaven through prayer". "This - he concludes - is our task, our call: to see Christ, to live, to experience and also to be Christ. A vocation that can give hope and trust. Christ, who lives in us, can give this encounter an inner healing". (ES/PA) (Agenzia Fides, 25/4/2022)


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