Mother’s Day: Ukrainian priest residing in Portugal picked up his 86-year-old mother to escape the war
«In Ukrainian we have 52 synonyms for saying mother» – Father Natanael Harasym
Lisbon, 30 Apr 2022 (Ecclesia) – Father Natanael Harasym, from the Greco Catholic Chaplaincy in Lisbon, goes around the ECCLESIA Agency who went to get his mother in Poland, to “escape the war”.
“It wasn’t easy, my mother didn’t want to leave her country, her house, she hesitated for two weeks, but on March 6 she made the biblical crossing, she went from Lviv to crossing the border on foot, despite the difficulties that has, and arrived in Krakow”, explains Father Nathanael in statements to the ECCLESIA Agency.
The priest arrived in Krakow on March 9, “the eve of the mother’s birthday”, and went by car “to take the mother to the Mother”, at the Marian Shrine of Chestokowa, Poland.
The priest, who has been in Portugal since 2001, recalls “that expected meeting” that was “very emotional” when he brought his mother, Eva Harasym.
“It doesn’t make the pain less of the suffering that comes to us not only on television, but it’s good to have a mother, to be by her side, here the mother, mother is a mother and my mother is with me and my brother who is also in Portugal . But what hurts me more is the suffering of so many mothers that it is also seeing the children and children that I care about as mothers”, she laments.
It is in the community of Nossa Senhora do Amparo de Benfica, in the patriarchate of Lisbon, that the cranial priest and mother “feels at home”.
“The mother is strange these days: it is a language that she does not understand and that they do not understand. But in this situation there is a language that goes beyond Portuguese, Ukrainian, Russian and even gestures: that of love, the only one that we will all understand”, she says.
In Portugal, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May, this year on the 1st, but in Ukraine, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, which means that the priest continues to celebrate every day.
“It’s like Easter, there’s a difference of a week between Westerners and Easterners. So mother’s day is also extendable because a mother is a mother and, in Ukrainian, we have 52 synonyms for the word mother, it shows the meaning because she gave us life”, he shares.
This testimony is part of the 70×7 program this Sunday, May 1, on RTP 2, at 5:30 pm, under the motto “Mothers Courage of Ukraine”.
SN