After three years of war, Scala News offers the testimony of a confrere on what the Holy Father defined yesterday as “a painful and shameful anniversary for all humanity!”
Father Bohdan Heleta, CSsR., tells Vatican media about his experience of faith during his imprisonment in prison: “It was very difficult, but the motivation that allowed me to endure the pain was to offer it to save my enemies.”
“What helped me to endure? It’s simple: God.” With these words our confrere sums up his experience of Russian captivity. Father Heleta, together with another Redemptorist, Father Ivan Levytskyi, was arrested in November 2022 in the town of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine. At that time, the town had been under Russian occupation for nine months. For a long time after their arrest, there was no information about their fate. Then, on June 28, 2024, they were both released.
A Test of Faith
The online meeting with Father Bohdan with the participation of the Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, was organized in the context of the third anniversary of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia on Thursday, February 20, 2025. Addressing the participants of the meeting, the priest focused on the spiritual aspects of the difficult experience of more than a year and a half in prison. The Redemptorist priest considers everything that happened to him as a test of faith, one that every Christian experiences throughout his life. “The ongoing war in Ukraine, what is happening to our people, is truly terrible,” he said, “but we know from the Scriptures, and we know that Christ said that these trials must come.”
The strength that comes from above
The priest stressed that the motivation that allowed him to endure the pain was to offer it to “save the enemies.” “And I thank God for giving me the opportunity to be there,” although, he admitted, “it was very difficult in an environment of brutality for the human person, where you have the constant feeling of being in a place of death.” In such an environment, a person only wants to die. None of the prisoners is afraid of death, what they fear is being tortured in the body, being mistreated. I thank God for giving me the strength to unite these tortures with Christ, with his suffering, with the path of Christ. And this is not my merit, but only the Lord’s. It is in this weakness that He gives strength. There I perceived the prayer of the Church, the Church in all its dimensions. I cannot explain it… In reality, this is the answer to the question of what helped me to resist. It is very simple: God. And I am so tormented by the fact that other prisoners who did not know God could not bear everything and there were cases of suicide and other painful things. All this will remain in my memory, and I will never be able to forget those moans, those agonies, all kinds of mistreatment. But I also dedicate it to the salvation of others, to testify that only God can sanctify us if we take a step from darkness to light.”
Not allowed to sit down
Father Heleta said that he and Father Ivan Levytskyi were held in a war prison. There were about 1,800 prisoners and the two priests were the only civilians. They had been accused of terrorism on the false charge that weapons had been found in their home. Sharing the fate of other Ukrainian prisoners of war, Father Bohdan tried to support them. “I could not help everyone, only those with whom I was directly in the barracks, about 200 prisoners. But I asked the Lord to embrace everyone with his love and mercy,” said the religious. This support was limited because, he explained, it was forbidden, it was considered a violation of the prison regime. “This was proposed to us in private, as we walked around a small courtyard (60 meters by 40). At 6 in the morning, they made us leave the barracks and we were not allowed back in until 10 at night. They forbade us to sit down or lie down: we had to stand and walk around all day. And so, we could meet, we could communicate, I could even confess.”
The Gospel in secret
Father Bohdan says that he asked the guard (a prisoner appointed by the colony administration) for permission to say a short prayer in the morning and in the evening. “He agreed,” said the priest, “even though it was a risk. So, for five minutes in the morning, before going out, we said a short prayer and read the Gospel. And the same at night before going to sleep. Even today I am surprised that this was possible, because it was dangerous. “I thank God that I was able to do this.”
During their conversation with Father Bohdan Heleta, the Vatican journalists were struck by the inner peace that the priest radiated. Despite everything he had experienced during the year and a half of his imprisonment, he did not use a single word of accusation against his jailers when he recounted it. “The Lord God heals everything with his grace. A person who is in grace,” he observed, “cannot use words of insult or hatred in response. Although I admit that there were moments of despair, it was not total despair… It was a deep sadness: a feeling of not wanting anything else. One just wants to leave this world. It is sad that people created in the image and likeness of God are capable of doing such things. And many of them believe that they are doing good. But what good can be done by torturing someone?
The meaning of suffering
One of the participants in the meeting raised the question of how a believer, and not just a priest, should perceive suffering. “The answer,” said Father Bohdan, “is very simple: Christ as a man did not want to die. He cried, he asked to be spared that cup, but he said to God: ‘I want to do your will.’ We do not want to suffer, but to do his will. And what is the will of the heavenly Father? It is the kingdom of God, so that all may be saved. So, we cannot avoid suffering, because God-Man, the second Person of God, has shown us the way. And I firmly believe in this, not only as a priest, but as a simple person. I believe in Christ, my friend and saviour.”
(vaticannews.va – Scala News)
You can read the original text in Italian: “Ucraina, padre Heleta: in prigione, fra le torture, Dio mi ha tenuto in piedi”
