A Testament to Unity

Sept. 1, 2024

Bishop Bryan Bayda, assistant state chaplain of Ontario, reflects on the charity and solidarity he saw in Ukraine and Poland

Sept. 1, 2024

Father Wiesław Lenartowicz, left, and Supreme Warden Andrzej Anasiak present Bishop Bayda with an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa during his visit to Radom, Poland.

Bishop Bryan Bayda, CSsR, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, also serves as assistant state chaplain for the Knights of Columbus in Ontario. Earlier this year, he traveled to Poland and Ukraine, where he visited a wide range of charitable initiatives supported by the Order and witnessed in person how Knights there — both Greek and Roman Catholic — are working together to care for displaced families and other victims of war.

“I’ve never been more proud to be a Knight of Columbus,” Bishop Bayda said of his visit. “The Knights really pull together when they see a human need, and they are serving Christ in these children and families who are experiencing the tragic results of war. That is absolutely great to see.”

It was also important to Bishop Bayda that he share with others what he witnessed. “I wanted to bring it to the attention of our Knights back home in Canada, to help support the Knights in Poland and Ukraine so that they can do what they do best, and they can do it better,” he told Columbia.

What follows is a summary of his experience, adapted from that interview with permission.

Our first visit was to Mercy Center in Warsaw, which is supported by the Knights. The Mercy Center helps refugees find jobs and homes, and also offers services and medication to help with mental stress and other difficulties — the physical, psychological and emotional stress of displacement and family separations caused by war.

The children at the Mercy Center, with the help of their teachers, put on a beautiful play about Our Lady of Fatima. I was quite impressed because they did it all from memory. These are children displaced by the war who fled to Poland with their families to find safety. It was wonderful to see them engaged and going to school.

We next went to Radom to see the good work being done at McGivney House. We were warmly welcomed by Father Wiesław Lenartowicz, the associate state chaplain, and Supreme Warden Andrzej Anasiak. Father Lenartowicz is the pastor at Our Lady of Częstochowa Church, right next to the McGivney House, and he showed us the programs they offer there.

In Lviv, Youriy Maletskiy, who was state deputy of Ukraine at the time, invited us to see where Ukrainian Knights were packing hygienic products and other supplies for people in war-torn Kharkiv. We also visited the Halychyna Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, which focuses on prosthetics. It’s quite a profound program, and the Knights are right in there, supporting something so personal and effective as that. It takes a lot of resources to fly the patients into the center, to set up the equipment, offices, all those things, and it’s demanding. And that’s where the Knights are choosing to put the hard-earned money that people are donating through the Ukraine Solidarity Fund.

Later, I met with Mykola Mostovyak, now Ukraine state deputy, and he introduced me to the Knights at the Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchal Sobor in Kyiv. I met with councils in Kyiv and Irpin and visited a chapel on the bank of the Dnipro River where an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been placed. It’s dedicated to the Knights now. It was a very good visit in the Kyiv area, to learn about the programs the Knights are doing for children, widows and others in need.

Bishop Bryan Bayda stands with Knights gathered at a K of C distribution warehouse outside Lviv, Ukraine, in June. — Bishop Bryan Bayda stands with then-State Deputy Youriy Maletskiy and other Knights gathered at a K of C distribution warehouse outside Lviv, Ukraine, in June.

This journey was an opportunity for me to see through the eyes of Blessed Michael McGivney, to imagine how he felt when he saw families breaking up because of tragedy. And it was an opportunity to see how the Knights are continuing to serve families today, just as they did when they were founded.

It was also good to see the collaboration and brotherhood between Ukrainian and Polish Knights, who were working very well together. You know, history is history; tensions between countries are inevitable over the centuries. But I could see the camaraderie, the unity among the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Knights and the Roman Catholic Knights and the Polish Knights.

We can do this charitable missionary work better when we are unified as Knights, as councils. It’s building that camaraderie, it’s working together — and the end result is striving to protect and serve the spiritual and physical needs of children and their families.

When you see these suffering people, it brings it home, puts it on your front doorstep. It gives you an opportunity to think, “What kind of charity am I able to do?” And when you look at people ready to give their lives, it gives you another perspective about what kind of charity God is calling you to do. I look at my efforts and say, “What have I done? Can I do better? Is God calling me to do more?” Most of us are trying to keep our lives as normal as possible, but perhaps a small effort on my side can make a huge difference.

For instance, take Knights of Columbus Coats for Kids. For us, it’s a few bucks, but for a child to have a coat during the winter, that’s massive, especially if they have power outages and loss of heat. A few dollars to provide that assistance, it may not impact my day-to-day very much, but it’s going to hugely improve the lives of others.

What struck me the most is the real unity that the war on Ukraine has brought about. It’s a very physical thing; it’s very tangible. Many, including Knights, fight for their country. Other members in Ukraine and Poland help on the ground, while Knights in many other countries — Canada, the U.S. and elsewhere — help by prayers and donations to the Ukraine Solidarity Fund.

I would ask every Knight to reflect on why you joined the Order — to really deepen your experience of Blessed Michael McGivney’s missionary vision of charity and unity. And to consider taking an extra step to do more, in the light of that vocation of compassion God has given you.

A Testament to Unity

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