Speech by Bishop Mykola Cardinal Bychok at the Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited (ACSL) Fundraising lunch in Sydney

Speech by Bishop Mykola Cardinal Bychok at the Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited (ACSL) Fundraising lunch in Sydney

5 February 2025

Your Excellency,

Brother Bishops, Rev. Fathers, Sisters, Distinguished Guests, Brothers and Sisters in Christ

On the 15^th of January 2025, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his weekly audience said: “Jesus, who loves everyone as a child of God, cares especially for those who are the smallest, seeing everything done to them as done to himself. Thus, addressing the needs of these little ones is a serious moral obligation. Today, many children living in poverty are forced to work, while other children suffer from abuse or maltreatment or have recourse to drugs or gangs. As individuals and as a society, we are called to act concretely.”

We are called as a Church and as individuals to act concretely. This requires us to stand in solidarity with survivors of abuse and the patience to listen to children and the vulnerable. It requires us to be informed and to acknowledge the crimes that have been committed and to make sure that justice is seen to be done. It requires us to face uncomfortable truths and to seek forgiveness not just by our words but by positive actions.

Abuse of children and the vulnerable takes many forms. All are intrinsically evil. Today we turn our attention and prayers to the Children of Ukraine who are now suffering the abuse of a war of aggression. More than 20 thousand children have been stolen by russia for re-education and resettlement in russia. Thousands of children have been displaced, thousands have been orphaned. Today, Ukrainian families have borne the heaviest and most painful blow of this barbaric war. 14 million people, mostly women and children and the elderly, were forced to leave their homes and their native lands. The war struck at the very heart of Ukrainian society — the family.

In July 2024 an enemy missile hit the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. Parents and children who had come to seek medical care were killed and injured. Responding to this atrocious attack, His Beatitude Patriarch Sviatoslav said, “In the name of God, with all our resolve, we condemn this crime against humanity. This is not only a crime against human laws and international rules of warfare but also a sin that cries for vengeance to heaven, according to Christian morality. Today we cry with all the victims, we pray for all the perished, especially the innocent children. We want to wrap all the wounded with our Christian love, all those who are hurting the most.”

People often ask me, what was said between me and Pope Francis as I was kneeling before him at the Consistory. I said, “Holy Father, please do all that you can, using all the resources of the Holy See to save Ukrainian children who have been stolen by the russian aggressor and to see them returned to their homeland and families”.

Your support and presence today are a small but visible way in which we can embrace those children who are suffering with our Christian Love. Your donations are a concrete act to help those who have been abused by war. On behalf of all Ukrainians, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity.

I sincerely thank Dr Ursula Stephens, Chief Executive Officer of Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited for the initiative of holding this fund-raising lunch and her team for making it happen. ACSL is a concrete response of the Catholic Church in Australia the evil of abuse within the Church. Your work is not easy, please be assured of my prayers for your most important ministry.

My heartfelt thanks to Fr Hans for your insights and wisdom. I had the privilege of meeting you in Philadelphia 5 years ago, when you addressed the clergy of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Your work, dedication, courage and fortitude are known around the world. I thank you for sharing your time with us today. May God grant you strength to continue to your mission. Thank you for reminding us that “each one of us can make a difference”! And that we care enough to listen to those suffering from trauma as individuals. Moral injury and spiritual trauma are real and we as a Church confront this every day.

I would like to extend my thanks to His Excellency, The Honourable Kevin Rudd AC, Australian Ambassador to the United States and Her Excellency Oksana Markarova Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States for their video message, support and kind greetings.

To Shaun Christie-David from Kyiv Social, you are trying to make the world a better place through food! Kyiv Social as well as other Social eateries are a concrete way of driving social change by employing and training refugees or through donating meals to people in need. Food is the heart of every Ukrainian event, thank you for this wonderful food and atmosphere.

Lord, by your power, instil in us hope for the protection of the lives of our children. Merciful God, bless our long-suffering Ukrainian land with your just peace. Thank you!