‘To see the face of God in wartime’: a Jesuit’s mission in Siberia
A small Catholic community in Tomsk, Siberia, has prayed the rosary daily for peace between Russia and Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Jesuit Father Wojciech Ziólek says the community also prays for God to save people’s hearts from hatred and revenge. Ziólek described feeling grief and helplessness when the war began, and sees prayer and daily ministry as ways to serve amid the conflict. Pope Leo XIV appealed for safe grain transport through the Black Sea, while Vatican official Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher urged Russian Catholics to become artisans of peace.
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A Polish Jesuit serving a small Catholic community in Siberia has made daily prayer for peace—and against hatred and fear—a central part of parish life since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Father Wojciech Ziólek describes his mission as accompanying people and recognizing the humanity and dignity of Russians and Ukrainians alike.
Ziólek leads Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Tomsk Oblast, a Siberian region larger than Poland. The area has only two Catholic churches, and Catholics account for about 0.5% of Russia’s population; Tomsk’s three Sunday Masses draw a combined 200 to 250 people.
The congregation reflects the region’s varied history, including descendants of Polish, German and Lithuanian families, as well as ethnic Russians. Some Russian parishioners were baptized Orthodox as infants but began seeking God as adults, while older Catholics often trace the survival of their faith through Soviet-era atheism to a praying grandmother or great-grandmother.
Ziólek says a new generation raised in the Catholic faith is now reaching adulthood. He also recalled two young women who entered the church one cold morning after a party simply to warm up; their first experience of Mass and the welcoming sign of peace led them to become active parishioners.
Since Feb. 24, 2022, parishioners and Jesuits have gathered daily for half an hour of Eucharistic adoration and the rosary, praying for peace between Russia and Ukraine. They also ask God to protect people from hatred and fear, which Ziólek identifies as immediate consequences of war.
He said the parish has not faced persecution for being Catholic and maintains warm relations with Orthodox Christians. Laypeople take on substantial responsibilities, including administration, fundraising and other ministries, in a community where Catholics are few and widely dispersed.
Tomsk’s Catholic community is linked to the history of Polish exile: after the suppression of the November Uprising against Russian rule, Polish insurgents were sent to the region, helping create the need for a permanent Catholic church, consecrated in 1833.
Ziólek welcomed the Vatican’s contacts with Russia’s Catholic community, including Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher’s recent visit to Moscow, but said he places particular hope in everyday relationships among Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Protestants. He describes the Jesuits’ responsibility as staying with people, helping them and accompanying them on their way to God.
For Ziólek, the challenge of ministry during wartime is to see God’s image in other people—including Russians—and to help Russians recognize it in Ukrainians. He says many Russian Catholics need the experience of being accepted and understood amid their “tangled and very painful situation.”
Christian peacemaking amid war through prayer and resistance to hatred
Christian peacemaking amid war is neither passive indifference nor hatred dressed up as justice. It begins in prayer, which brings the suffering of war before God and teaches us to act beyond our own limited strength. Pope Leo XIV urges Christians to turn each report of tragedy into intercession, then to offer practical help and bear witness to Christ, who overcomes evil through love and forgiveness.
That witness resists the logic of revenge. We can condemn unjust actions, speak truth, and work for mediation without treating those responsible—or those on the opposing side—as less than human. Pope Francis calls Christians to build bridges, pursue reconciliation, and never see another person merely as an enemy to destroy, because every person has God-given dignity.
Prayer must therefore shape what we do: care for the wounded, support those driven from their homes, help repair what violence has broken, and work for peace in our communities. Pope Leo describes prayer as breaking the cycle of evil and calls everyone to reject war not only in words but in deeds.
The difficult test is to oppose hatred without hating. Christian resistance is directed against injustice, not against the human worth of the person committing it; it seeks to protect life and soften hearts. The prayer Pope Francis offered during the war in Ukraine captures this demanding mercy: asking God to stop violence, while also asking him to care for the one who raises a hand in violence, because even that person remains a brother.