Father Volodymyr Klanichka was telling a recent visitor to Wilmington’s ornate St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, where he is pastor, that he had a late calling to vocation.
Then he stopped himself.
He didn’t have a late calling, he said. He was called earlier in his life. He just could not do anything about fulfilling the call to vocations because he was born in communist Ukraine, behind the Iron Curtain and part of the Soviet Union.
“I have this calling since my childhood, but no God,” he said. “Not in the Soviet Union. Where I lived, there was no church. It was closed.”
There was an underground church and he was more fortunate than several generations before him. He lived to see the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991. He could then follow his dream and pursue a life in his faith.
Father Klanichka has been in the U.S. more than 20 years. He and his wife Natalia – Ukranian Catholic priests can marry – live with their twin children in Wilmington. Mark and Deanna are sixth graders at Immaculate Heart of Mary School.
He has never been detached from his homeland – he tries to visit every year as he and Natalia have family and friends there — and he has never been more worried about peace and freedom in his homeland as in the last several months while the Russian army has built up military forces along the border with Ukraine, mostly in the north and east. Conflict seems imminent and Father Klanichka believes he knows what Russian President Vladimir Putin wants.
“Putin wants to go back to the Soviet Union,” he said. “Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to exist.”
That’s the key point, the goal of the Russians and its iron-fisted leader. Many Americans have read and heard the recent headlines. President Joe Biden and U.S. leaders are worrying about Ukraine’s future, pondering Putin and what he plans to do. But if you’d ask the majority of Americans what it’s all about, many wouldn’t know. And some conflict-weary people would tell you they don’t care.
Father Kanichka, 49, knows both what is happening and why it matters. His parish was not founded by World War II refugees, but it was nurtured and strengthened by them — people who escaped Nazism and eventually Josef Stalin and communism. That generation has dwindled to a precious few, but those who remain can tell their stories. They came to this country having evaded labor camps. And they can talk about the concern and outright fear of those who live in Ukraine now.
Father Klanichka and the 100 families that make up St. Nicholas know that fear, too. He hears from friends all the time. His mother’s sister and her family are there. His wife’s parents and brother. His family originates in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, which is in the west of Ukraine. That seemingly makes that region fortunate, since the buildup is reported to be heaviest in the east. But he doesn’t believe that keeps them out of harm’s way.
“We need to pray,” he said. “They’re worried.”
Like many parishes, Father Klanichka worries that his suffers from a lack of young people making the church an important part of their lives.
“The people who came here (from Ukraine), they kept the traditions from generation to generation,” he said. “The traditions are dying. I think so. But the people who remember, they are worried, really worried. They pray for Ukraine.”
Ukraine has long been the “bread basket” of that part of the world, he said, but it struggles economically. Jobs are scarce. He believes it will only gets worse under Russian rule.
Father Klanichka hopes allied countries can help discourage an invasion from Russia. He also recognizes that Americans and other allies have grown weary of foreign conflicts. He says Ukrainian defense operations stand ready to put up a fight. “They need supplies and military weapons,” he said. “It’s a poor country.”
Still, he worries, prays and longs for a positive outcome. He’s not confident, though.
“I think Putin will invade Ukraine,” he said. “If the world doesn’t stop him, that’s what will happen. The world and NATO need to come together and stop Putin.”
