Bohdan Kolos for New Pathway, Toronto
In the days immediately following the November terrorist attacks in Paris, as tourists, we were treated everywhere as very much appreciated foreign guests.
Coming into the Notre Dame Cathedral to take part in a mass to commemorate the Holodomor of 1932-1933, we were directed to the shorter line, though still scanned twice for metal and searched by heavily armed soldiers. We felt privileged since the line for regular tourists was at least a hundred meters long. The Cathedral had been fenced off, and everyone was scanned at the outer perimeter and then again at the massive church doors. It was a bit unsettling to see so many armed police and military personnel everywhere. But once inside the Cathedral we felt safe.
On that Sunday, the local Paris Ukrainian Greek Catholic church of St. Volodymyr the Great was closed during the morning hours, since the parishioners were invited to attend commemorative afternoon mass at the Paris Notre Dame Cathedral.
But Ukrainians still met outside St. Volodymyr church in the morning. The regular Ukrainian parishioners gathered to mingle and chat, and catch up on the local Paris news and events of the week in Ukraine. An assortment of vans with Ukraine license plates were parked on the side streets selling dried sunfish from Ternopil and offering to deliver letters and packages back home.
The Holodomor commemorative mass was celebrated by Bishop Borys Gudziak (Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of France, the Benelux countries and Switzerland), and Bishop Hlib Lonchyna (Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishop of England) along with Bishop Eric de Moulins Beaufort (Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General of Paris). Also in attendance were representative clergy from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and other representatives from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic clergy.
There were over 500 worshipers in attendance at the mass, singing along with the Ukrainian choir from St. Volodymyr church.
Bishop Hlib Lonchyna addressed those present during the mass, indicating the importance of never forgetting the millions of victims who were starved to death in Ukraine during the Holodomor famine-genocide of 1932-1933.
“The evils of this world will not be overcome with yet more armaments, though they are necessary to defend oneself from enemies. The evils of this world we will overcome by praying for the conversion of our enemies, and by the witnessing of our Christian life and charity.
“In these times we need to also remember our soldiers, who today are fighting in Eastern Ukraine (ATO), their families, the deceased, those who have been left without homes, without land. And at the same time, we cannot forget the victims of terrorist acts here in Paris,” emphasized Bishop Hlib Lonchyna.
The mass at Notre Dame followed the commemoration events of the previous day held in Senlis, a small town on the outskirts of Paris.
Senlis is where the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Anna Yaroslavna, resided and ruled as Queen in the 11th century, and where today, in the town’s historic park, stands a statue to her memory. In this same park also stands a plaque commemorating the Ukrainian Holodomor. Bishop Gudziak, Bishop Lonchyna and members of the Ukrainian community laid flowers at the foot of the statue and at the Holodomor memorial plaque.
Later that afternoon a conference was held in town. Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, presented a lecture entitled “History of Ukraine in 90 minutes”. His underlying belief is that there are very fundamental differences between Ukrainians and Russians, all based on their separate historical experiences, geography and societal shifts.
By commemorating the anniversary of Holodomor, Ukrainians in France take the opportunity to not only remember the victims of this genocide, but also inform the community at large about important and relevant events in Ukraine, both past and present.
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