A cleric of the RCC: Ukraine needs to make a spiritual effort and condemn the Volhynia massacre
According to a cleric of the RCC, Ukrainian society is obliged to make a spiritual effort and publicly acknowledge the mass extermination of Poles in Volhynia in 1943–1945.
The editor-in-chief of one of the oldest Catholic weeklies in Poland, Gość Niedzielny, a cleric of the RCC Marek Ganczarczyk, stated that Ukrainians as a people must make a "great spiritual effort" and acknowledge the mass extermination of Poles in Volhynia in 1943–1945. He wrote about this in an opinion column titled "Ukraine Needs Conversion".
According to Ganczarczyk, Polish President Karol Nawrocki "could not have acted otherwise" when he stripped Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle following Ukraine's decision to name a military unit after UPA heroes.
"You cannot endlessly pretend that nothing bad is happening. Sooner or later, the Ukrainian side needed to be told: 'Stop, you must come to your senses. You cannot build a future on the glorification of murderers'" — he wrote.
Ganczarczyk emphasized that the Volhynia crime "cannot be buried under the earth of oblivion" and that it "will continue to divide, reopen wounds, and poison mutual relations" until Ukrainians acknowledge the guilt of their ancestors, allow the search for victims, their exhumation, and proper reburial.
"When a cross is placed on the grave of the last found victim, this matter will finally be laid to rest" — the editor-in-chief of Gość Niedzielny concluded.
A cleric of the UGCC Justyn Boyko, in a Facebook post, criticized Ganczarczyk's article. According to him, in the Polish priest's text he "barely heard the voice of a pastor" but "heard very clearly the voice of historical politics." Boyko stated that the Church "ceases to be itself" when it begins to speak "in the language of national grievances rather than the language of the Gospel," and called such a tendency in the Polish Catholic community "a symptom of a serious spiritual crisis."
The Volhynia massacre (1943–1945) was the mass extermination of the Polish civilian population of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). According to estimates by Polish President Nawrocki, 100,000 Poles perished during these events. The Polish Sejm recognized these events as a genocide of the Polish people in 2016. Ukraine has not officially accepted this qualification, which remains a source of tension in bilateral relations.
