Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
As I Watch The Invasion Of Ukraine

As I Watch The Invasion Of Ukraine

Last updated on: February 24, 2022 at 11:11 pm by Mary Pezzulo

As I Watch The Invasion Of Ukraine 2022-02-24T23:11:20-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I never feel I have anything good to say, on days like this.

I’m watching Putin’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, in horror, as I’m sure you are. At the moment I’m watching the shelling of Kyiv. I am thinking of the people hiding in the subway station, listening to those explosions, and praying for them.

I call this “Putin’s assault” deliberately, because the Russian people themselves don’t want this. They’ve been out in the streets chanting “no war” all across Russia today, and they have been arrested by the hundreds. This nightmare is the work of one cruel, selfish, narcissistic oligarch.

I’ve been racking my brain all day for anything I can possibly say that would be different from what people all of the world are saying, and coming up with nothing.

There were other things I was going to write about, before all hell broke loose. Happy things. This weekend was the fifty-fourth anniversary of the premier of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and I was going to write about my love for Mr. Rogers, my happy memories of watching it myself and of Rosie watching several episodes a day on Amazon Prime years ago when she was little. That would have been lighthearted fun.

Well, here’s something. This has been rattling around in my brain for days, because my head’s been full of Mr. Rogers and because it took place in Russia where people are being arrested for protesting Putin’s murderous actions today.

In 1987, when I was not yet three, I watched Mr. Rogers go to Moscow. And then I watched it again in re-runs several times, and again several times when Rosie was little. I practically have the episode memorized. Mr. Rogers flew to Russia so he could appear on a Russian children’s television show hosted by a lady named Tatiana. First he walked around the Red Square and tried to entertain some bemused Russian children with his Daniel Striped Tiger hand puppet, then he came to the studio and met Tatiana live on television. He invited her to come to America and see him.

The next episode, Tatiana did show up at Mr. Rogers’s television house, with an interpreter in tow. The three sat in Mr. Rogers’s powder blue retro kitchen, sipping juice out of awkward little paper cups. Mr. Rogers asked Tatiana if she had any children, and Tatiana showed the audience a photograph of her son, Dmitri. Dmitri was the same age as the target audience for Mr. Rogers. She kissed the picture like an icon and said, through her interpreter, that Dmitri liked toy cars, but his favorite thing to do was draw. She said that children in her country liked drawing and music, and they had little chairs and little beds just like children in America.

Mr. Rogers asked Tatiana if Russian children ever got scared of the dark, and she gravely said that they did.

That was his whole interview. He went all the way to a country with which we were embroiled in a cold war, in order to show us that the citizens of that country had children who liked puppets, and then he brought a woman from Russia to Pittsburgh to tell children that children overseas were scared of the dark.

And it’s always struck me that that is the most important thing you can know about other people who live in a different part of the world: those people have children, and those children fear the dark.

I am certain that the world would be a much better place, if our first thought when we think of other people, is that they have children just like ours who like cars and songs, who sit in little chairs and sleep in little beds, and who might be afraid of the dark. And that what we did to those people, we would also end up doing to their children.

I wish that I could reach across the world, and grab violent oligarchs by the collar, and scream in their faces that the people they abuse have children, who fear the dark. Even though I know it wouldn’t make any difference. But I can remind the rest of us about the children, and we can remind one another.

Yesterday morning, in Kyiv, children awoke to the sound of bombs when it was still dark. And they were afraid.

Tonight they are trying to sleep in the subway station, sheltering from more bombs, and they are afraid.

And I pray that whatever happens, we will keep the well-being of those children as their priority. And when the fighting goes elsewhere as it certainly will, we remember that those people also have children who fear the dark. And that whatever we do going forward, our minds will always be on the children.

May we always remember the children.

Image via Pixabay

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross and Stumbling into Grace: How We Meet God in Tiny Works of Mercy.
Steel Magnificat operates almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Previous Post

February 23, 2022

My Diagnosis, A Year Later

Next Post

February 25, 2022 More on Ukraine, On Prayer, and How to Help

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Though Israel played the harlot, I will betroth you to me forever in righteousness and justice, in love and what?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Holiness Faithfulness Compassion Truth