While the faithful and other people of goodwill across The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, the nation and the world show their support with prayer for the besieged people and nation of Ukraine, collections are being established so they can also offer monetary support.

A special Ash Wednesday Appeal for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe will be taken up in all churches on March 2, Ash Wednesday.

“The regularly scheduled second collection on Ash Wednesday, March 2 is for the Church in the Developing World in light of the great humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the surrounding countries,” Father Daniel B. Carson, the archdiocesan Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, announced in a March 1 letter emailed to all priests of the archdiocese. “Cardinal Wilton Gregory, along with Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), encourages you to specifically promote the Collection to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe on Ash Wednesday.”

The collection “will allow the faithful to make a timely contribution and provide assistance to the victims of war in Ukraine, among many other projects the collection supports in the region,” Steubenville, Ohio Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, wrote in a letter to all the nation’s bishops.

“A robust response at this moment will allow the Church in the United States to continue to be a strong partner in the rebuilding and restoring of the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, and to give critical and timely humanitarian aid now for Ukraine,” Bishop Monforton wrote in his letter.

In his letter, the bishop also invoked The Blessed Virgin Mary under her title Queen of Peace, “to bring a swift end to the violence.”

The collection comes as Father Robert Hitchens, the pastor of the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C., told the Catholic Standard that people in Ukraine and those forced to flee that nation “are lacking the basic human needs – food, clothing, shelter. There are a lot of hungry and cold people.”

“In my parish everybody is worked up, nobody is sleeping,” he said. “This is about the suffering of innocent people. Children have died. Ordinary people have died. There has been the senseless destruction of property and people’s homes. Upwards of 600,000 people are refugees.”

The Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family – which serves Ukrainian Catholics from as far away as Annapolis; Fredericksburg, Virginia; Frederick, Maryland and even Pennsylvania – has planned several March 2 opportunities to pray for peace in Ukraine. Because it calculates Lent differently than the Roman rite, the Ukrainian rite began its observance of Great Lent on Feb. 28, and March 2 is not Ash Wednesday in its liturgical calendar.

On March 2, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m., there will be various prayer services for peace in the Byzantine Chapel in the lower level of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At 4:30 p.m., there will be a Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts offered in conjunction with Pope Francis’s call for that day to be one of prayer and fasting for peace in the Ukraine.

At 7 p.m. that evening, a Moleben prayer service seeking the intercession of the Blessed Mother of God for the intention of peace in the Ukraine will be held at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family, 4250 Harewood Road in Northeast Washington.

On Sunday, March 6, at 2 p.m., Holy Family parishioners will join others for a rally in support of Ukraine that will take place in Lafayette Park in Washington.

“Prayer is our greatest weapon and we need to storm the heavens with our prayers. As Christian people, our arsenal isn’t weapons and bombs. Our arsenal is prayer, fasting, alms giving and doing good deeds,” Father Hitchens said. “We need to dedicate our prayer and fasting and alms giving and good deeds to pray for the conversion of hearts for those who are attacking Ukraine.”

The collections planned by the bishops, other Catholic organizations and his own parish, show that “this war has brought people together to follow the command of Jesus to love your neighbor,” Father Hitchens said.

“I have been taking calls from people offering spaces and rooms for refugees and other help,” he said. “There has been an outpouring of tremendous goodwill from all Americans, not necessarily just those with connections to the Ukrainian community.”

He noted that last Sunday, just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, his church was packed with people who wanted to pray for peace.

“It looked like Easter,” the priest said of the congregation size. “People from the all over the Washington region who wanted to pray for the people of Ukraine were here – and we do have the need for all people to join us in prayer.”

Father Carson, in his letter to the priests of the archdiocese, noted that in addition to the special in-church collection on Ash Wednesday, parishioners can donate online directly to the campaign at https://www.usccb.org/committees/church-central-eastern-europe/how-give. 

The faithful can also donate to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the U.S. bishops’ main international charitable arm. Donations can be made at https://support.crs.org/donate/donate-ukraine?ms=agicrs2022ukr00her00&_ga=2.19546751.618301534.1646083796-735720520.1646083796.

“CRS already has staff in Ukraine providing humanitarian relief,” Father Carson noted, adding his prayer that “the Holy Spirit strengthen and protect the people of Ukraine in this war.”

Father Hitchens also asked that people respond with prayer and support: “Please brothers and sisters in The (Roman Catholic) Archdiocese of Washington – we are counting on you to pray for the suffering people of the Ukraine, especially the children.”

“I believe Ukrainians will get through this suffering. Carrying this heavy cross is the mystery of our Christian vocation. Ultimately, we have to remember as Christians, we are people of hope,” the priest said. “We know the Blessed Mother and the entire Communion of Saints – especially the great saints of Ukraine – are also with us and interceding before the throne of almighty God.”

Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory will celebrate an Ash Wednesday Mass at 12:10 p.m. March 2 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, 1725 Rhode Island Ave., N.W. The cardinal’s Ash Wednesday Mass at the cathedral will be livestreamed.