Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
Cardinal Mykola to the bishops in Papua New Guinea: “I ask you to pray for the peace in Ukraine, for the thousands of people who today continue to live in hope and wait for a miracle”
September 26, 2026
From 21 to 25 September, Bishop Mykola Cardinal Bychok, Eparch of Melbourne, led a retreat for the bishops of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
Over the five days, Bishop Mykola delivered a series of retreat conferences focusing on the vocation and ministry of a bishop, his personal relationship with God, his responsibility for the people of God entrusted to his care, and the challenges of pastoral ministry in today’s world.
Cardinal Mykola devoted his final retreat conference to the theme of hope. Drawing on his most recent visit to Ukraine, he spoke in particular about the families of servicemen who are prisoners of war or are considered missing. “To give you some idea of the scale of this tragedy, today more than 114,000 people in Ukraine are officially listed as missing. Behind this number there are not simply statistics, but thousands of fathers, mothers, wives and children who continue to live in the hope that their loved ones will return.”
During his time in Ukraine this year, Bishop Mykola had several opportunities to meet with the families of servicemen who are missing. During the retreat conference, he recalled one such meeting in the Odesa region. There, the Cardinal was greeted by women, each holding a small bell bearing the name of her missing husband, son or father.
“I do not think I can fully convey to you what I felt at that moment as I walked through that corridor of terrible, incomparable pain, and yet, at the same time, of hope for their return. You know, it is easy to preach about hope when everything is going well. But how do we speak about hope to those who live surrounded by hopelessness?” Bishop Mykola emphasised.
The Cardinal brought one of these bells with him to Papua New Guinea. It bears the name of Oleksii Maksymenko, a Ukrainian serviceman from the Odesa region. Following the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion, he volunteered to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Despite suffering severe injuries, he returned to the front and, on 9 December 2023, went missing while carrying out a combat mission near Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region.
At the conclusion of the retreat conference, Bishop Mykola entrusted Oleksii Maksymenko’s bell to the bishops and asked them to pray for Ukraine: “I would like to leave this bell here in Papua New Guinea and ask you to pray for the peace in Ukraine, for the thousands of people who today continue to live in hope and wait for a miracle. May the sound of this bell today become a symbol of hope for all those who need it — not only for Ukrainians, but also for all your faithful who face difficult circumstances of many different kinds in their daily lives. May the Lord hold each of them in His care and let us pray that hope does not disappoint us.”
