Ukrainian Catholic University plays key role in the war — and in healing

He asked the audience "to pause to feel your neighbor's pulse. That's right! Ask for a hand and feel the heartbeat of the person next to you. Just do it!

“Be still and listen. Touch — with permission — and feel. Yes, even those of my age the throb is still there.

“Wow! The life of another. A life to respect and enhance, celebrate, and protect. Imagine friends, there are 8 billion pulsing hearts on this planet. Full of hope, promise, love and life.”

It is impossible to listen to Bishop Gudziak and not be moved. This was very true of the Notre Dame community: They have partnered with UCU in its struggle to save Ukraine one heart at a time.

On this trip in April to Lviv, three other American Ukrainian activists joined me. Leading us one day on campus was Professor Jeffrey Wills, one of UCU's best assets. He and Gudziak are close friends and were classmates at Harvard. Wills has been helping support UCU and nonprofits in Ukraine.

"Visionary leaders are focused on where the puck is going, not where it is now," he said of his friend. "So, part of Bishop Borys' gift is to speak prophetically in the days to come, which is a voice many students as well as Ukrainians at large need to hear."

Wills set up appointments for our group with the school's top educators, including Rector Taras Dubko, a 20-year veteran of UCU; and Orest Sulvado, the executive director of UCU's Mental Health Institute. All three have made mental health and veterans issues a focus of the university.

The World Health Organization in 2021 designated Ukraine as a Special Initiative for Mental Health country. The organization estimates at least 9.6 million people are now at risk of or living with a mental health condition in Ukraine.

Dubko talked about the pressing need for more trained people. He pointed out that in the 1930s there were 3,000 priests in what is now Ukraine. After 50 years of war, then persecutions in the mid-1980s, there were 300, mostly elderly priests. Today, however, there are more than 3,000 priests in and from Ukraine, including priests that are serving abroad — more than 100 in the U.S. There has been a tenfold increase in the last 35 years.**

UCU is now training 30 priests in psychology, a big step for a religious institution. It recognizes that priests need to understand the fundamentals of psychology in order to refer their parishioners/patients to mental health professionals.

At UCU, if students have depression due to stress, they can take part in group therapy run by graduate students in psychology. Veterans can get services free of charge. Students also can take meditation classes.

A study released in April by the International Blast Injury Research Network at the University of Southampton in England demonstrated the mental health crisis. Their findings describe high levels of PTSD and generalized anxiety among both refugees and people displaced within Ukraine.

Since February 2022, at least 13 million people have been displaced from their homes, the report said, noting that the loss of community, housing and economic resources affects mental health. Researchers surveyed more than 8,000 participants — either refugees or people displaced within Ukraine. Nearly 8 out of 10 people surveyed who remained in Ukraine reported blast exposure. More than half the refugees who fled the country reported exposure to explosives. Almost 70% of all survey participants reported anxiety. People who remained in Ukraine reported higher anxiety and more frequent flashbacks.

The struggle to convince Ukrainians to use psychologists has been scarred by experiences during the Soviet era. At that time, the psychiatric system was used against dissidents. This fueled distrust in therapy among those who associate it with involuntary captivity.

The use of apps and internet technology is common in addressing the mental health challenges facing Ukraine. The app BAZA, for example, uses cognitive behavioral therapy methods to help veterans and civilians in Ukraine unable or hesitant to pursue therapy.

Natalia Klymovska, UCU vice rector told me, "UCU is expanding the menu of services for the community, and giving more attention to healing the wounds of war, through rehabilitation, occupational therapy and psychological support of veterans and those who suffer from military action," she said. "We plan to conduct training for Ukrainian doctors to introduce the newest approaches and technologies in medical practice."  

Ukraine faces a long road in serving its war veterans. The Ministry of Veteran Affairs has in the past been held in low esteem by Ukrainians. In February 2024 the head of the ministry resigned. Hopefully, new leadership will lead to improved performance.

The Ministry ofVeteran Affairs estimated the number of people eligible for veterans' status post war may increase from 1 million to 5 million by the end of the war. A survey requested by the Ukrainian Veterans Fund found that 52% of vets surveyed needed immediate health care while 63% mentioned health problems returning to civilian life. Most Ukrainian veterans receive a monthly payment of only $100.

A model for Ukraine is the U.S. GI Bill, enacted into law after World War II. 

Veterans' organizations in the U.S. provide examples of using their power to help ensure that when veterans return home, their fellow countrymen stand ready with the benefits needed to help them transition into civilian life. 

U.S. veterans' organizations including the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Ukrainian American Veterans should  partner now with Ukrainian veterans' associations. I know as a member of both the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Ukrainian American Veterans that now is the time to make those connections.

Recently at the Kennan Institute in Washington D.C., Ukrainians Kateryna Odarchenko and Elena Davlikanova wrote a report recommending the U.S. model for Ukrainian veterans and their organizations. "The U.S. veterans' affairs system was selected as a blueprint for Ukrainian reform because of its comprehensive approach to policies for veterans," they wrote.

UCU is doing its part to bring attention to the needs of returning veterans. Its Volunteer Center provides logistical support to military hospitals and to mobile medical units, and a medical clinic that opened in May will prepare future physicians, occupational therapists and psychologists. UCU also recently opened the Office for Affairs of  Veterans and their Families, and students are involved directly in providing services to combatants and their families. 

At Notre Dame in 2022, Bishop Gudziak challenged the graduates to, "Really know yourself for who you are. … Go love the world person by person, heart by heart. Do not be afraid." A small group of UCU graduates did just that 10 years ago when they created "the Platform." What began with a handful of UCU graduates in Lviv has grown to 10 other centers throughout Ukraine — serving as an umbrella agency for organizations to leverage their combined resources. The multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform now has over 200 employees.

And it has garnered the support of religious organizations like Caritas, and similar organizations in the Dutch, Finnish and Danish churches.

Mariana Kashchak is the thoughtful and able CEO of the Platform. The organization has found shelter for 100,000 people forced from their homes, implemented more than 670 projects to support orphans and children and constructed more than 700 buildings for families affected by the Russian invasion since 2014, she said.

With the aid of other grant makers in business, religious and government institutions, the Platform is also preparing Ukraine for the time when it will be able to rebuild.

That time is not here yet. Ukraine has had a most difficult year. Because of significant delays in U.S. and EU aid packages, as well as lack of replacements for fighters at the front, they have experienced painful losses. Their spirits may be diminished, but from what I saw myself, those spirits have not been broken. From President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to those on the front lines, to the UCU students in basement bomb shelters  assembling aid packages for soldiers, you can never count them out.