Ukrainian military personnel and chaplains went on the international pilgrimage to Lourdes
On May 16, 2016, the Ukrainian military personnel and chaplains went to the 58th International military pilgrimage to Lourdes. This year's pilgrimage involved 133 pilgrims, including military servicemen and chaplains. Ukrainian delegation was led by Bishop Mykhailo (Koltun), chairman of the Department of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC for Pastoral Care in the Armed of Ukraine.
A group of pilgrims set off from the city of Lviv, where at Sahaydachnyy National Academy of the Military Bishop Mykhailo (Koltun) blessed pilgrims and wished a happy journey.
“The answer we want to hear from the Holy Virgin, is that we can bring to Ukraine a peace in our hearts, in thoughts, that we can feel in that limited audience the world of our coexistence, our joint action, our mutual understanding and peace and were able to come with that to our place of service and accommodation,” said the military bishop.
This year, participating in the pilgrimage are 133 military servicemen and chaplains, including ATO participants, officers, cadets, soldiers of the border troops and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The delegation includes wounded military servicemen that were involved in the fighting in Eastern Ukraine. Thanks to the material aid of the Knights of Columbus and the German Chaplaincy, the Department for Pastoral Care in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was able to finance participation in the pilgrimage of about twenty soldiers.
According to Fr. Lubomyr Yavorskyy, Deputy Chair of the Department, Ukrainian military go to Lourdes pilgrimage center with the aim to present Ukraine in the prayer service of the annual international Congress. This pilgrimage is special, as the soldiers are gathering in the holy place not for military reasons but to pray for peace in the world. “Obviously, we need peace most of all. Each member of the military pilgrimage goes to Lourdes with the desire to pray for peace, and we as chaplains will accompany and help them,” said Fr Lubomyr.
Ukrainian delegation will arrive in Lourdes at the beginning of the international pilgrimage on May 20. On the way to pilgrimage centers the pilgrims will go on tours to historical and religious monuments of European countries: Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. The way back will go through Austria and Poland. In the Vatican the military will have an audience with Pope Francis, and the pilgrims will pass through all four papal basilicas, where the doors of God's Mercy are open.
The travel of Ukrainian troops is coordinated by the Department of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC on Pastoral Care in the Armed Forces of Ukraine jointly with the Patriarchal Pilgrimage Center and with support by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. It was reported by the press center of the Department of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC on Pastoral Care in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Background:
The main theme of the 58th International Military pilgrimage is God's Mercy. The leitmotif of the three days’ stay of the military in Lourdes is the saying “The door is always open.”
This year's trip to Lourdes of the Ukrainian delegation is the jubilee one: for the twentieth consecutive year the representatives of our country participate in a military pilgrimage to the holy place.
In addition, this time the delegation of Ukrainian military is the most numerous of all participating in the pilgrimage in previous years. 133 soldiers from Ukraine set off for Lourdes. By this time, the maximum number of military pilgrims from Ukraine reached 109 people. And the last two years because of fighting, Ukraine's participation in the International Pilgrimage was only symbolic and not numerous. Wounded soldiers take part in a pilgrimage to Lourdes for the second consecutive year.
