Sr. Alina Anastasia Petrauskaite SCM – Vatican
How to help children and youth preserve the joy of childhood when war rages around them? Iryna Nazarenko – Secretary of the Youth Commission of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, coordinator of Catholic education on the Roman Catholic side, and a teacher at the Salesian Private Lyceum „Vsesvit” in Zhytomyr – speaks in an interview for Vatican media about her daily work with the younger generation, children’s letters to soldiers at the front, special moments of common prayer, and where she herself finds the strength not to fall into despair.
The Church’s Ministry: From Football Tournaments to Spiritual Healing
According to Iryna Nazarenko, the Youth Commission of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese finally formed in its current composition under the leadership of Fr. Mykhailo Wocial SDB just before the start of the full-scale invasion. Its team includes priests, consecrated persons, and active youth from various parishes. “Since we organize our events for young people, it is important for us to hear their opinions and desires. Especially since young people want to serve the Church, children, teenagers, and each other,” emphasized the commission’s secretary.
Through various activities, the organizers aim to create an environment that combines safe recreation, genuine joy, and the experience of a living Church, to help children and youth find inner peace and strengthen their spirits. For several years now, the Diocesan Children’s Day has been organized for children. This year, over 300 young participants, along with chaplains and animators, had the opportunity to escape the anxious wartime daily life, if only for a moment, Vatican News reports.
An important element of education is the combination of sport and evangelization, for example, through the annual football tournament “Bishop’s Cup”. To unite children and youth around the Word of God, biblical olympiads and Biblical Agape are organized. Furthermore, as Iryna Nazarenko notes, the Salesian Animation School works perfectly, where teenagers and youth learn about volunteering, group communication, and serving their peers.
A special experience was this year’s Teenager’s Day, which gathered about 400 participants: the meeting lasted three days, culminating in the Solemnity of Pentecost. The program was designed to help young people during the difficult period of personality formation to “experience a living encounter with Christ.”
Iryna Nazarenko recalls that such a number of teenagers under one roof initially “resembled a real hurricane,” but this force was calmed during prayer. During the event, special tents were set up where priests were on duty. The pastors were moved by how many boys and girls went to confession or spiritual conversations, seeking answers to their inner anxieties.
Realities of War: Suffering, Shelters, and Letters to the Front
Ukrainian children today face challenges that no child should ever have to endure, yet the Church and educators are doing everything possible to help them survive amidst great suffering. Iryna Nazarenko emphasizes that wartime is a severe test for everyone, and the word “stress” is even inadequate here. Many high school students have lost loved ones at the front – an unspeakable pain that, as the teacher says, can only be endured with God’s help.
“Children and youth pray very intensely for those who are now defending them on the front line while they go to school. We also pray together. And it’s a great joy to see a child rejoice when they receive news that a loved one, who had not given any sign of life for a long time, has finally made contact and is alive,” Iryna shares. Today, the educational process is significantly hampered by air raid sirens, which force teachers and students to spend hours in shelters. This is very exhausting for children, yet they still come to the lyceum every day and sincerely thank God simply for the fact that this day has come and they have the opportunity to learn.
An inseparable part of parish and school life has become supporting the defenders of Ukraine. Children actively draw postcards and write letters of gratitude with national symbols, which volunteers then deliver to the front. These drawings and written words speak so powerfully that it is impossible to hold back tears. Ms. Iryna recalls a touching moment when, on Christmas, she and her students went caroling to a military hospital. Wounded soldiers listened to the children and cried, and dozens of children’s drawings hung above their beds. The military, with tears in their eyes, repeated that children are precisely those for whom they risk and give their lives at the front.
Living One Day at a Time: Where to Find Strength Amidst Shelling?
Remaining in Ukraine since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, Iryna Nazarenko testifies that today Ukrainians live in a state where no one knows if they will wake up tomorrow, because enemy shelling destroys cities and takes the lives of many civilians. In these conditions of constant threat, deep faith and the sacraments are her only stable support. Prayer gives inner strength, and the teacher confesses that she simply cannot imagine how this tragic time could be lived without God and regular participation in the Eucharist. Hope remains only in God’s mercy and His protection. “I wake up every day and see how the Lord gives me strength to work with children, to teach them, to talk to them, to give them light. And I do it,” Iryna Nazarenko concluded.
