Vatican News portal reports on June 16, 2026, about the activities of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese of the so-called “Roman Catholic Church” in Ukraine during wartime. Iryna Nazarenko, Secretary of the Youth Pastoral Ministry Commission, describes diocesan gatherings, football tournaments, Bible Olympiads, children’s letters to soldiers, and the supposed spiritual resilience found in sacraments and prayer. The article presents a heartwarming narrative of faith sustaining children amid war, complete with images of an auxiliary bishop presiding over a “Mass” and teenagers seeking “confession.” What the article utterly fails to address is that the entire conciliar structure operating in Ukraine — from the “bishops” to the “priests” to the “sacraments” — is a modernist edifice built on the ruins of the true Catholic Church, and that the spiritual formation being offered to these children is not the unchanging deposit of faith but a naturalistic, horizontal parody that leaves souls defenseless before the gravest dangers: sin, heresy, and eternal damnation.
The Abomination of Desolation Presented as Pastoral Care
The article opens with a question that, on its surface, appears compassionate: “How can we help children and adolescents preserve the joy of childhood when war rages around them?” But the answer provided reveals the theological bankruptcy of the entire conciliar enterprise. The “Youth Pastoral Ministry Commission” of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr Diocese — a structure of the post-conciliar sect — organizes football tournaments, Bible Olympiads, Salesian Animation Schools, and three-day adolescent retreats culminating in a “Solemnity of Pentecost.” These are the tools with which the neo-church claims to preserve the faith of a nation at war.
Let us be precise about what is being described. The “Mass” presided over by “Auxiliary Bishop Oleksandr Yazlovetsky” is not the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — the Unbloody Renewal of Calvary’s propitiatory sacrifice — but the Novus Ordo Missae, the Protestantized memorial meal engineered by the Masonic architect Annibale Bugnini and promulgated by the heretic Paul VI. This “Mass” does not offer God the worship He is due; it assembles the faithful around a table of fellowship. The “Sacrament of Reconciliation” sought by teenagers at these gatherings is administered by “priests” whose ordination rites were almost certainly the invalid 1968 Pauline rite, meaning they possess no power to absolve sins whatsoever. As Pope Paul IV declared in Cum ex Apostolatus Officio, those who defect from the Catholic faith — as every architect and participant of the conciliar revolution has done — are deprived of all jurisdiction, and any acts performed by them are null, void, and of no effect.
The children writing letters to soldiers, the teenagers weeping in “confession,” the wounded men moved by carols — these are human realities, and the suffering of war is genuinely terrible. But the article exploits these emotions to legitimize a counterfeit church. The true Church, the Catholic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, teaches that extra Ecclesiam nulla salus — outside the Church there is no salvation (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215). The conciliar sect is not the Church. It is, as Pope Pius IX warned in the Syllabus of Errors, a structure that has embraced religious liberty, ecumenism, and the separation of Church and State — all condemned as errors. To present its activities as genuine pastoral care is to lead souls into a spiritual trap far more dangerous than any physical bomb.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity Applied to Wartime Suffering
The article’s narrative structure follows a predictable conciliar template: acknowledge suffering, invoke community and sacraments, express hope in God’s mercy, and conclude with a testimony of personal resilience. Iryna Nazarenko states: “Her hope rests entirely on God’s mercy and protection. ‘I wake up every day and see how the Lord gives me the strength to work with children, to teach them, to speak with them, and to bring them light.'”
This language is deliberately vague. What “God” is being invoked? The God of Catholic revelation — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — or the vague deity of modernist indifferentism, condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (proposition 15: “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true”)? The conciliar sect has systematically emptied Catholic worship of its supernatural content. The “Eucharist” in which Nazarenko finds strength is, in objective reality, not the true Body and Blood of Christ but a symbol — if that — of a community meal. As the Syllabus of Errors condemns in proposition 58: “No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” The conciliar church has replaced the supernatural order with a horizontal, naturalistic humanism dressed in liturgical vestments.
Consider what is entirely absent from this article: any mention of the state of grace, the necessity of mortal sin confession to a validly ordained priest, the reality of hell, the obligation of Catholic parents to ensure their children receive true catechesis, the duty of nations to publicly recognize the Social Kingship of Christ as Pius XI mandated in Quas Primas. There is no mention that Ukraine’s suffering, like all suffering, is a consequence of sin — original and actual — and that the only true remedy is not football tournaments but repentance, prayer, and the true Mass. As Pius XI wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed” (Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio). Ukraine, like every nation since the conciliar apostasy, has removed Christ the King from its public life, and the fruits are war, suffering, and spiritual desolation.
Sports, Animation, and the Democratization of Formation
The article proudly describes the “Salesian Animation School” teaching adolescents “volunteerism, teamwork, communication skills, and service to their peers.” The “Bishop’s Cup football tournament” unites youth around the Word of God. Bible Olympiads and a “Biblical Agape” are organized. Three-day adolescent retreats feature “special tents” where “priests” are available for spiritual guidance.
This is the conciliar model of formation: the reduction of the supernatural life to social skills, community bonding, and emotional experiences. The true Catholic formation of youth, as practiced by the Church for nearly two millennia, centered on the catechism — the systematic teaching of the Creed, the Sacraments, the Commandments, and the Our Father — combined with daily attendance at the true Rosary, frequent confession to a valid priest, and immersion in the lives of the saints. The Salesian method as practiced in the conciliar context has been entirely co-opted by the spirit of the Council. St. John Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, operated within the framework of the true Church, the true Mass, and the true sacraments. The “Salesian Private Lyceum ‘Vsesvit'” in Zhytomyr operates within the framework of the Novus Ordo, invalid sacraments, and a catechesis that, at best, waters down the faith to the point of innocuousness.
The “Biblical Agape” is particularly revealing. The term “agape” was adopted by the early Protestants and later by the conciliar church to replace the sacrificial language of the Mass with the language of communal fellowship. It signals a deliberate theological shift: from the propitiatory sacrifice offered to God to a horizontal meal shared among men. This is precisely the error condemned by the Council of Trent, which anathematized anyone who says that the Mass is “only a commemoration of the sacrifice offered on the cross” and not a true and proper propitiatory sacrifice.
The Omission That Condemns: No True Doctrine, No True Church
The most damning feature of this article is not what it says but what it omits. There is no mention of the fact that the “Roman Catholic Church” in Ukraine is a conciliar structure that has embraced every error condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. There is no mention that the “bishops” and “priests” operating in this diocese are part of a system that has:
- Promulgated the heretical Declaration on Religious Freedom (Dignitatis Humanae), condemned by the Syllabus of Errors (proposition 77: “In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State”);
- Embraced ecumenism, praying with schismatics and heretics, in direct violation of Canon Law and the constant teaching of the Church;
- Replaced the true Mass with a Protestantized rite;
- Systematically dismantled the traditional catechism and replaced it with the ambiguous, modernist Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992);
- Appointed manifest heretics and sodomites to positions of authority throughout its structures.
The children being “formed” by this system are being formed in apostasy. They are being taught to find comfort in invalid sacraments, to seek guidance from men who possess no jurisdiction, and to place their hope in a “church” that has explicitly rejected the Social Kingship of Christ — the very doctrine that, if embraced by Ukraine and all nations, would bring true peace. As Pius XI declared in Quas Primas: “The state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… and remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The conciliar sect in Ukraine does none of this. It organizes football tournaments.
The Suffering of Children and the Silence About Sin
The article describes children losing loved ones on the front lines, spending hours in bomb shelters, and praying intensely for soldiers. Iryna Nazarenko recounts: “It is a profound joy to see a child’s happiness upon receiving news that a loved one, who had been out of contact for a long time, has finally called and is alive.”
These are real sufferings, and no Catholic can be indifferent to the pain of children. But the true Church has always taught that suffering is a consequence of sin — both original sin and the actual sins of individuals and nations — and that the remedy is not community bonding but conversion, penance, and the true sacraments. The concilar article offers no call to repentance, no acknowledgment that Ukraine’s embrace of religious indifferentism, its participation in the globalist order, and its failure to consecrate itself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (as Our Lord requested through St. Margaret Mary) have contributed to the divine permission of this war.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili sane exitu, condemned the modernist proposition that “the progress of sciences requires a reform of the concept of Christian doctrine concerning God, creation, Revelation, the Person of the Incarnate Word, and Redemption” (proposition 64). The conciliar church has done precisely this — it has reformed doctrine to accommodate the modern world, and the result is a church incapable of offering true spiritual consolation or true supernatural hope. The children of Ukraine deserve the true faith, the true Mass, the true sacraments, and the true teaching that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation. Instead, they are given football and animation.
Conclusion: A Counterfeit Church for a Suffering Nation
The Vatican News article presents a narrative of hope and resilience that is, in reality, a spiritual fraud. The “Church” it describes is not the Catholic Church founded by Christ but the conciliar sect that emerged from the apostasy of Vatican II. The “sacraments” it offers are invalid or doubtfully valid. The “formation” it provides is a naturalistic parody of true Catholic catechesis. The “hope” it proclaims is horizontal — rooted in community, human solidarity, and emotional comfort — rather than vertical, rooted in the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charity infused by God’s grace through true sacraments.
The children of Ukraine — and all children — deserve the true faith. They deserve priests who can truly absolve their sins, a Mass that truly offers propitiatory sacrifice to God, and a Church that truly teaches that Jesus Christ is King of all nations and that His law must govern every aspect of public and private life. The concilar sect offers none of this. It offers football tournaments and letters to soldiers — good things in the natural order, but utterly insufficient for the salvation of souls. As Our Lord said: “What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). The conciliar church in Ukraine is helping children gain a moment of wartime comfort at the cost of their eternal souls. This is not pastoral care. It is spiritual abandonment dressed in the language of compassion.
Source:
Giving Ukrainian children hope that strengthens hearts in times of war (vaticannews.va)
Date: 16.06.2026