ROME – As part of an ongoing visit to Ukraine, the Vatican’s Secretary of State visited a heavily bombarded city over the weekend and celebrated Mass at a popular Marian shrine, telling locals to never lose hope and to continue praying for peace.

Speaking at the July 21 closing Mass of an annual pilgrimage to the Marian shrine in Berdychiv, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin told attendees to “never lose faith and hope in God.”

“Above all today, when it seems that evil has the upper hand, when the horrors of war and the pain of the many victims and the massive destruction undermine faith in divine goodness, when our arms fall and we no longer even have the strength to pray,” he said.

Parolin is making a July 19-24 visit to Ukraine, where in addition to celebrating Mass at the Berdychiv shrine, he also stopped in the bomb-ridden city of Odessa and is expected to meet with civil and ecclesial authorities.

Run by Discalced Carmelites, the Marian shrine in Berdychiv every year draws some 4,000 people from across the country and beyond, who come in pilgrimage to pray for various intentions. For the past two years, since Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine, pilgrims have especially been praying for peace.

The shrine was originally founded as a monastery that was opened in 1630, and for which a special icon of the Mother of God Snizhna (Our Lady of the Snows) was painted. Veneration to the icon rapidly spread, and soon believers began flocking to the monastery in large numbers.

Many testified to receiving special graces after praying at the monastery through the intercession of Mary, and on May 23, 1647, the Latin bishop of Kyiv, Stanislav Zaremba, formally approved the devotion and veneration of the icon as the Mother of God of Berdychiv.

The sanctuary received the status of a national shrine after approval from the bishops’ conference on Oct. 27, 2011.

Parolin was accompanied to the July 21 Mass by Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, the Vatican’s nuncio to Ukraine. It was also attended by civil authorities and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as pilgrims from throughout the country and beyond.

In his homily, read almost entirely in Ukrainian by Bishop Eduward Kawa, an auxiliary bishop for the Latin Archdiocese of Lviv, Parolin assured attendees that Pope Francis is close to them and shares the pain of Ukrainians, saying the pontiff reaches out to them “with his paternal embrace.”

Parolin recalled how the first miracle associated with the shrine occurred in 1627, when Janusz Tyszkiewicz, governor of Kyiv and Zhytomyr, was imprisoned during a battle with the Tartars.

Imprisoned and in chains, Tyszkiewicz promised to do a good work for God and for the Virgin Mary if he was freed. While he was sleeping that night, some unknown friars appeared to him and prayed for his liberation.

After he was eventually freed, Tyszkiewicz decided to build a monastery in Berdychiv for the religious whom he saw in his dream and whom he later recognized as Carmelites in Lublin, three years later. The shrine holds a copy of the famed Salus Populi Romani icon housed in the Roman Basilica of Saint Mary Major, which Pope Francis visits before and after every international trip.

Parolin invited faithful to “unceasing prayer, so that God may convert the hearts of those who, having strayed from his ways and having become slaves to their own pride, sow violence and death, trampling on the dignity of children in others.”

“We must truly ask the Lord, he who is the heavenly physician, to heal us from these lethal diseases and replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh!” he said.

Parolin invited attendees to look at the crucifix, noting that when it seemed that sin had triumphed and God’s project of salvation had failed, it was then that the resurrection happened. Pointing to the Virgin Mary, he said she is close in times of difficulty, and “she accompanies us sweetly toward his glorious resurrection.”

He called the icon of Mother of God of Berdychiv a symbol of tenderness and love, saying Mary “is the herald of the dawn,” meaning Jesus, and she is also consolation in sadness and is quick to bring Jesus “our supplications for the martyred Ukrainian people.”

Closing his homily, Parolin prayed that Mary would intercede so that “children and young people may have a serene and certain future, that families may be centers of love, that the elderly and sick may receive comfort and relief in suffering.”

He also prayed “that those who defend their homeland may be protected from the attacks of evil, that prisoners of war may return to embrace their loved ones and that victims may be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of the Latin Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia after the homily consecrated Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

After the consecration, Parolin gave a rosary blessed by the pope to the shrine’s rector, Father Vitaliy Kozak, saying it represented “a commitment from all of us to continue to pray so that Our Lady may meet our intentions, our needs, and our requirements.”

“I leave them as a proclamation of hope and strength in the fight against evil to your Church, tested by the cruelty of war. May peace reign within you so that it may reign in your homeland. Almighty God, bless Ukraine and grant her peace,” he said.

On Saturday, a day prior to Mass, Parolin made a visit to Odessa, one of the heaviest-hit cities in Ukraine, where he prayed for victims and for a just and lasting peace.

A port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Odessa is a strategic city for Ukraine and, given its location, it has been a prime target of Russian shelling and airstrikes since the beginning of the war in 2022. The city came under heavy Russian fire in the spring and is still a target of regular attacks, with Russia in recent weeks resuming drone and missile attacks in the area.

Accompanied by members of the Orthodox church and local Caritas office, Parolin visited with locals and assured of the pope’s closeness to them, saying Francis “follows the situation with great attention, great concern, and great pain.”

Parolin said he joins in the suffering “of those who cry for the destruction of their properties, of those who have had to leave and take refuge elsewhere, the pain of all those who in some way are involved in this terrible war.”

Noting that for Ukrainians, there is pain on one hand and hope on the other, Parolin said, “I believe that as Christians we must not lose hope, the hope which thanks to the grace of the Lord can touch even the hardest hearts.”

He also voiced hope that “with the good will of many people, a way can be found to reach a just peace…I hope that this visit…can bring a small contribution to building peace, a path of peace in this land.”

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