I am deeply moved by everyone’s efforts

We are still shocked by the cruelty of war barbarically prosecuted in the Ukraine.

On the media we can follow the news and information, unfortunately its quite shocking. I was personally deeply moved by the dire situation in Mariupol (Mary’s town) in Ukraine, with reliable reports that some people have starved to death. Another shocking and sinister development was the news that some people from eastern Ukraine were deported deep into the Russian heartland. Undoubtedly Soviet/Russian tactics and methods haven’t changed.

On the other hand, I was very happy to see on the news some American volunteers defending positions near Kiev along with Ukrainians. They managed to liberate two villages from the occupation of Russians.

It seems that the number of Ukrainian war refugees are still escalating and tens of thousands continue to flee their country to find safe havens in the west.

My Ukrainian friend is married to a Polish girl and working in transportation in Silesia, Poland for a number of years organised a massive relief convoy for the Ukrainians. Last Sunday I noticed on Facebook that he has sent the 23rd and 24th lorry of humanitarian aid into Ukraine. Really unbelievable.

Last week President Biden met with the Polish President for a series of meetings and talks. The Polish premier made the revealing comment that there has been no greater unity and solidarity in Europe since the time of the Polish Solidarity in 1980s. Now Europe is united in its outrage at the atrocities carried out on a sovereign state and free people.

For many years Polish politicians have warned its allies in the west about the potential danger posed by Putin, these warning often fell on deaf ears or were held up to ridicule.

The former Polish President Lech Kaczynski was absolutely right some 15-20 years ago when talking about the imperialistic dreams of Russia. President Kaczynski died along with some 100 leading figures from the Polish government in a very controversial plane crash in Russia onApril 2, 2010. Russia still holds the remains of the plane and has been very reluctant in respecting international regulations when it comes to plane accidents investigations.

I am deeply moved by the efforts of so many people from around the world. Last week some people from East KIilbride told our volunteers that they had no religious affiliation or belief in God but want to help us as much as possible. I respected this totally. Perhaps they have no religious faith but they have good and generous hearts filled with love for their brothers and sisters suffering so terribly. The basic truth is that our human capacity for goodness is what counts most in order that we step forward and be a good and decent person a good MP, a good teacher, a good priest, a good Christian or a good Buddhist.

In our church of St Bride’s we still happily inundated with a mountain of work, as a result of the incredible generosity to our appeal. Last week we had wonderful weather and so everyone enjoyed coming to the chapel house and working outside using our car park as a kind of hub.

Every day we had around 10-20 people, mainly from our church, our church regulars who came to sort out the donated goods. We had collected them in my chapel house and in my garage which were full to capacity! I was very happy to see this happening although it meant squeezing past the mountains of boxes in the house and garage.

I am very happy I started this appeal and I do not regret a thing. I think our parish community benefits from this much more than the people for whom we volunteer, and to whom we send our donations. Every day I meet many people here, I experience a lot of encouragement, happiness, unity and simply the Christian spirit among the people who are involved in this appeal.

We will wait a week or two until we resume our present appeal. We plan to continue the appeal for as long as there is a need for it. Many people have contacted me and asked about how to invite Ukrainian War Refugees to their homes.

There are official guidelines on the Scottish Government Website and legal requirement you have to fulfill before inviting the refugees. The Catholic bishops of Scotland have issued some statements on this subject as well.

I do apologise that I could not respond to all those emails and contacts, as I simply had no time for this. However, I would be willing to provide some contacts, advice, information on this subject as I am from Eastern Poland. I myself cannot organise groups of Ukrainian refugees coming here to Scotland, but I will be very happy to assist you with this and provide information and contacts from Eastern Poland.