A Pilgrimage in a Country at War

What does Christian faith look like in a country where war is not a distant news story but a daily reality? Father Emil Hoffmann, CM, encountered an answer to that question during a visit to Ukraine in May 2026. There, amid anxiety, bereavement, and continuing danger, he discovered a Vincentian Family determined to remain united in prayer and hope.

The invitation originated with Father Leonid Kuklyshyn, CM, Vice-Visitor of the Vice-Province of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Ukraine. He invited representatives of the Slovak Province of the Congregation of the Mission to participate in a Vincentian Family pilgrimage in Sniatyn, a city approximately 60 miles southeast of Ivano-Frankivsk.

Father Tomáš Brezáni, CM, Visitor of the Slovak Province, asked Father Hoffmann to represent the province. As vice-postulator of the cause for the beatification of Ján Havlík, Father Hoffmann was also invited to speak about the young Slovak Vincentian seminarian whose faith remained unbroken under communist persecution.

The pilgrimage took place on May 23, 2026, in the church dedicated to Blessed Marta Wiecka, a Daughter of Charity who died in Sniatyn in 1904 after contracting typhus while caring for the sick. She was beatified in Lviv in 2008.

Her memory gave the gathering a particularly powerful meaning. The pilgrims had come together in a place associated with a woman who gave her life through humble service, while their own country continued to endure the wounds of war.

Faith Expressed Through Witness

Father Hoffmann addressed laypeople, priests, and consecrated men and women. Father Kuklyshyn, his former seminary classmate and a priest ordained in the same year, translated both his conference and his homily into Ukrainian.

Speaking about Blessed Ján Havlík’s courage, fidelity, and spiritual resilience was an emotional experience for Father Hoffmann. He had traveled to encourage people living through war, but he realized that the message was also directed toward his own heart.

The central theme of his reflection was simple: the world may not always understand theological language, but it recognizes authentic love.

Christianity first became convincing not because its followers possessed eloquent arguments, he explained, but because others could see how deeply they loved one another. The same remains true today. The world understands the language of a person who bends down to care for someone who is sick, as Marta Wiecka did. It understands the witness of someone who remains faithful to truth despite persecution, as Ján Havlík did.

Christian love becomes credible when it takes visible form.

Father Hoffmann developed the same message in his homily, drawing upon the Gospel account of Martha and Mary. While Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened, Martha devoted herself to serving. Christian discipleship needs both dimensions: attentive communion with Christ and active love for others.

Returning to a Changed Ukraine

Father Hoffmann had previously visited the region ten years earlier. Returning in 2026, he found a profoundly different country.

The people themselves seemed changed. Their faces showed concern and exhaustion. Some of the women attending the pilgrimage had already lost their husbands. Others had husbands serving in the trenches, defending their homeland while their families waited and prayed.

For people living farther west, the war can appear remote—something discussed in political debates or experienced indirectly through rising prices. For communities closer to Ukraine, however, the conflict is geographically and emotionally near. From Košice in eastern Slovakia, the Ukrainian border is only about 60 miles away; from Sobrance, the war is almost on the doorstep.

The pilgrimage, therefore, offered more than a religious celebration. It created a space where people could meet, support one another, pray together, and affirm that fear and violence would not have the final word.

Praying for a Just Peace

One of Father Hoffmann’s strongest appeals was the need to pray not merely for peace, but for a just peace.

Peace cannot be built by minimizing the wrong that has been committed or by asking victims to forgive while ignoring truth and accountability. Injustice must be clearly identified, evil condemned, occupying forces withdrawn, and the damage inflicted upon people and communities addressed.

Forgiveness does not erase the need for justice. Nor does the pursuit of justice necessarily mean hatred or revenge.

Father Hoffmann presented Blessed Ján Havlík as an example of this difficult balance. Havlík did not respond to his persecutors with condemnation. He prayed and did not seek personal vengeance against those who tortured him. Nevertheless, he continued to demand justice and refused to accept lies as truth.

His witness offers an important lesson for Ukraine and for the wider world: Christian mercy does not require indifference toward evil. It calls believers to defend human dignity while resisting the temptation to become consumed by hatred.

A Vincentian Family That Remains Together

After the pilgrimage in Sniatyn, Father Hoffmann also traveled to Kyiv. He returned to Slovakia grateful for the opportunity to listen, to pray, and to witness the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

The experience showed how the Vincentian charism comes alive during times of crisis. It is expressed in prayerful presence, in solidarity with suffering families, in care for the sick, and in the courage to stand beside those whose freedom and dignity are under attack.

Blessed Marta Wiecka and Blessed Ján Havlík lived in different historical circumstances, but their lives proclaim a shared message. One served the sick until her own death; the other remained faithful under persecution. Both allowed Christian love to become something visible and unmistakable.

In a world often divided by ideologies, borders, and competing narratives, their witness continues to speak a language that needs no translation—the language of courageous, faithful, and self-giving love.

Based on information from the website of the Congregation of the Mission in Slovakia.