The City of Vienna is also equipping the ambulances with medicines and medical supplies. The Archdiocese of Vienna announced this in a broadcast on Saturday. The ambulances come from the organization “Green Cross” and could be purchased at a very reasonable price from the Catholic Ukrainian communities in Austria. Cardinal Schönborn spoke of a “moving moment of helpfulness”.
He thanked all donors as well as the City of Vienna. “I called the mayor and he immediately said: We’re going along with that.” What’s happening in Ukraine is incomprehensible and unjustifiable. “But there is only one way: peace. Not those will be victors who want to conquer or destroy the country, but those who create peace.”
Thousands of refugees in Vienna
Social City Councilor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) also took part in the blessing ceremony at the Neuottakring parish church. He spoke of the “pain that in the 21st century people are still shooting at each other and throwing bombs at schools, hospitals and kindergartens”.
The city of Vienna has already given protection to many thousands of refugees from Ukraine – 40 percent of them are children or young people. “And even if there are more, you will get our support. We give all refugees protection, order and security.” And the aid for the people in Ukraine would also be “untiringly supported by Vienna.”
Commemorating the victims of war
At the beginning, the Vicar General of the Catholic Eastern Churches in Austria, led by Cardinal Schönborn, Yuryi Kolasa, celebrated the solemn Byzantine memorial (“Panachyda”) for the victims of the war with Schönborn, other priests and numerous people from the Ukraine. “The strongest answer to the godlessness of war is love,” Kolasa warned. Right now it is “of crucial importance for everyone to participate in the redeeming power of God and to realize love for God and for neighbor”. The ambulance campaign is an example of this.
Kolasa, who himself comes from Lemberg in the Ukraine, thanked the entire population of Austria “from the bottom of my heart for the numerous and impressive signs of solidarity, compassion and solidarity. The wave of solidarity that arose spontaneously throughout Austria touches our hearts and strengthens our hope that we are not alone.”
Easter bags for refugee families
As part of the celebration, there were also meetings and discussions with numerous Ukrainian refugee families – including those from Bucha, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kyiv – to whom Cardinal Schönborn and City Councilor Hacker presented Easter bags and Easter bread as a sign of welcome.