Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe concluded a visit to Ukraine to show support for the local Church and the Order of Preachers communities. The Cardinal visited Kyiv, Fastiv, and Kherson, noting the courage of people determined to stay and build a future despite devastation. In Kyiv, he visited a military hospital and met wounded soldiers, finding the experience deeply moving. At St. Martin’s Mission in Fastiv, he observed joyful volunteers caring for children and involving locals in service. Kherson was described as the most moving location, illustrating how war destroys community life, leaving mostly elderly residents.
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Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., completed a two-week solidarity visit to Ukraine starting February 27, 2026, touring war-affected areas to support local Churches and Dominican communities.1 2
He visited Kyiv, Fastiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Kharkiv, meeting bishops, wounded soldiers, volunteers, and religious sisters.1 2
In Kyiv, Radcliffe visited a military hospital, praising director Ivan Yavorskyi.2
Fastiv's St. Martin’s Mission impressed him with joyful volunteers aiding children and locals.1 2
Kherson, a front-line city under daily shelling, showed war's destruction of community life, yet featured courageous residents, a volunteer bakery providing daily bread amid drone threats, and Father Maksym Padlevskyi's faithful service.1 2
Odesa offered a warm welcome from Bishop Stanislav Shyrokoradiuk of the Odesa-Simferopol diocese.1 2
In Kharkiv, near the Russian border, he met Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk, joined Greek Catholic liturgy, and had a moving encounter with children of single mothers cared for by Polish Orionine Sisters who chose to stay despite the invasion.1 2
Radcliffe highlighted "enormous courage" and "tremendous witness" among Ukrainians determined to build a future despite exhaustion and vulnerability.1 2
He noted joyful resilience in religious communities like Carmelites, Basilians, and Dominicans, emphasizing their role as signs of global fraternity called for by Pope Francis.2
Radcliffe declared Ukraine's suffering as "the suffering of the whole world," positioning it on the front line for freedom and democracy.1 2
He urged global remembrance of Ukrainians as "brothers and sisters," echoing Isaiah, and called for support to affirm shared humanity.2
Amid ongoing conflicts like the Middle East war, Radcliffe stressed hope through the Eucharist, rejecting violence as a solution.2
Peace requires recognizing strangers as siblings in Christ, fostering universal fraternity.2
Explore Catholic teaching on solidarity amid wartime suffering
Catholic teaching on solidarity emphasizes it as both a moral virtue and a social principle essential for human flourishing, particularly in crises like war, where it calls for interdependence transformed into justice, peacebuilding, and care for the suffering. Rooted in our shared origin in God, common home on earth, and destiny in Christ, solidarity counters selfishness and "structures of sin" that exacerbate wartime devastation, urging a commitment to the common good amid conflict's dehumanizing effects.
Solidarity is not mere compassion or sporadic aid but a "firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the good of all," rising to the rank of a fundamental social virtue that prioritizes community over individual appropriation. It arises from the recognition of humanity's composite ties—mutual dependence among individuals, groups, nations, and peoples—and demands transforming interdependence into ethical relationships that overcome fragmentation and exclusion.
“The word ‘solidarity’... presumes the creation of a new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few.”
This principle binds solidarity to the common good, the universal destination of goods, equality among peoples, and world peace, making it indispensable for resolving socio-economic woes and fostering international moral order. Ecclesially, it flows from catholicity, expressing communion as mutual responsibility to participate in and cooperate with society. For the Church, solidarity manifests her dynamism in Christ, a practical awareness of God's people's interdependence, and a call to "help carry one another’s burdens" (Gal 6:2).
Catholic social teaching views peace as the fruit of solidarity (Opus solidarietatis pax), requiring the defeat of exclusion, imperialism, and diffidence through justice and collaboration. War, by contrast, is a profound denial of human dignity—a "defeat of humanity" that solves no problems but multiplies them, leaving trails of destruction, mutilation, displacement, and environmental ruin. No war justifies a mother's tears or the loss of even one life created in God's image.
“Because of the evils and injustices that all war brings with it, we must do everything reasonably possible to avoid it. The Church prays: ‘From famine, pestilence, and war, O Lord, deliver us.’”
While acknowledging self-defense and just war criteria as last resorts to protect the innocent against grave evil like terrorism or persecution (including of Christians), the Church prioritizes prevention, peaceful resolution, reconstruction, and moral restraint in force. Solidarity demands eradicating roots of conflict—racism, extreme poverty, disease—and welcoming strangers, such as immigrants fleeing war, with opportunities for safe homes and family unity. Nations bear a duty to defend life and the common good but must reject torture, preventive strikes, and indifference to war's proliferation.
In war's dehumanizing context, solidarity humanizes by safeguarding non-combatants, the wounded, prisoners, healthcare workers, and religious personnel through international humanitarian law, while banning superfluous suffering and environmental harm. It extends pastoral care to soldiers bearing "spiritual wounds" from atrocities—offering the balm of God's Word, Eucharist, and Reconciliation to regenerate souls scarred indelibly by conflict. Soldiers and families need the Church's "motherly closeness," as chaplains accompany them.
Solidarity also addresses broader suffering: promoting peacemaking per the Gospel, distributing burdens equitably in responses to terror, and fostering a "culture of solidarity" through education and new behaviors that unite social groups beyond self-interest. John Paul II stressed awakening consciences to redirect resources from arms to human needs, as millions languish like Lazarus while war drains the planet. Francis echoes this in crises, urging faith-guided solidarity to weave communities, not walls, for truly human growth.
Scholarly insights align: Suffering, including war's, finds redemptive meaning when united to Christ's Cross, offered in reparation, empowering divinization through self-emptying love. Courage unites just warriors and martyrs in sacrificing for good.
Believers are called to global solidarity as "one human family," thinking of others' needs, bearing fruit through justice, and activating Holy Spirit creativity for fraternity amid tempests. This includes:
In an interconnected "global village," solidarity heals interpersonal and social ills, ensuring post-crisis emergence "better than before."
In summary, Catholic teaching presents solidarity as the antidote to wartime suffering: a virtue and principle demanding justice, peace, and merciful accompaniment to uphold dignity in conflict's shadow. By rooting actions in faith, we build God's kingdom of harmony in diversity.