RCC cleric: Ukraine must make a spiritual effort and condemn Volyn massacre

Marek Ganczarczyk. Photo: Ganczarczyk's Facebook page

Marek Gancarczyk, editor-in-chief of Gość Niedzielny, one of Poland’s oldest Catholic weeklies and a cleric of the Roman Catholic Church, has said that Ukrainians as a people must make a “great spiritual effort” and acknowledge the mass killing of Poles in Volyn in 1943–1945. He wrote this in an opinion column titled “Ukraine Needs Conversion.”

According to Gancarczyk, Polish President Karol Nawrocki “could not have acted otherwise” in stripping Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle after Ukraine’s decision to name a military unit after heroes of the UPA.

“One cannot go on pretending forever that nothing bad is happening. Sooner or later, the Ukrainian side had to be told: ‘Stop, you must come to your senses. You cannot build the future on the glorification of murderers,’” he wrote.

Gancarczyk stressed that the Volyn crime “cannot be buried under the soil of oblivion” and that it “will continue to divide, reopen wounds, and poison mutual relations” until Ukrainians acknowledge the guilt of their ancestors and allow the search for victims, their exhumation, and their dignified reburial.

“When a cross is placed on the grave of the last victim found, then this matter will finally come to rest,” the editor-in-chief of Gość Niedzielny concluded.

UGCC cleric Justyn Boyko criticized Gancarczyk’s article in a Facebook post. According to him, in the Polish priest’s text he “almost did not hear the voice of a pastor,” but “very clearly heard the voice of historical politics.” Boyko said the Church “ceases to be itself” when it begins speaking “the language of national grievances rather than the language of the Gospel,” calling this trend within the Polish Catholic community “a symptom of a serious spiritual crisis.”

The Volyn Massacre of 1943–1945 was the mass killing of Polish civilians in Volyn and Eastern Galicia carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). According to estimates cited by Polish President Nawrocki, 100,000 Poles were killed in these events. In 2016, the Polish Sejm recognized the killings as genocide against the Polish people. Ukraine has not officially accepted this qualification, and the issue remains a source of tension in bilateral relations.

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