Father Andrzej MACKOW
and Fr. Sebastian JANKOWSKIlive and work in the town of Slavutych, Ukraine.
Slavutych is located about 40 miles from Chernobyl, site of one of the world’s
worst nuclear reactor explosion in 1986. Most of Frs. Andrzej and Sebastian’s
parishioners at St. Eugene de Mazenod Church are victims of the Chernobyl
disaster.
Robert Sturova
is a parishioner at St. Eugene de Mazenod Church. He was an engineer for 22
years at Chernobyl and was present when the meltdown occurred. Today he has
chronic breathing problems, but considers himself lucky because nearly all of
his co-workers have been dead for many years.
In 1986, the
Sturova family lived in the town of Pripyat next to the Chernobyl power plant.
Robert’s five-year-old daughter Anna watched the explosion from her bedroom
window. Pripyat is now a ghost town because of unsafe radiation levels.
The former
Soviet government tried to minimize the Chernobyl disaster, claiming at first
that only a few hundred people were impacted. Today, an estimated 600,000
people are believed to have health problems caused by radiation from Chernobyl.
“The government
told us that it was safe, so people stayed in the area,” said Tatiana Makarowa,
a member of St. Eugene de Mazenod Church. “Now the kids are paying for that
lie.”
Today, most of
the residents of Slavutych are either victims of the Chernobyl disaster or work
at the power plant in clean-up and monitoring efforts. Residents have high
rates of leukemia and tumors, and many children have been born with illnesses
that physicians are unable to identify. The World Health Organization reports
that thyroid cancer among children living in Slavutych is 80 times higher than
normal. Even “healthy” children have labored breathing and much coughing.
The first
Missionary Oblate to minister to the Chernobyl victims was Fr. Henryk KAMINSKI in
1994. In those early years he celebrated Mass on the steps of an abandoned
church building and in private homes.
In 2002 the
Oblates established St. Eugene de Mazenod Church in Slavutych, the first
Catholic church in the Chernobyl region. Four Oblates arrived to serve the
people of Slavutych, despite warnings of high radiation in the soil and the
local food supply.
Father Pavlo VYSHKOVSKYY,
one of these four Oblates, said the new parish was a symbol that, while human
beings can create horrible disasters, we can also create beautiful things like
a new faith community.
“The Oblate
missionaries strive to make this area a sign of hope, showing that humanity can
return to God and build a civilization of love on the ruins of their mistakes
and their sins,” said Fr. Pavlo.
The Missionary
Oblates have focused a good portion of their energies in Slavutych on the
children. For years they have been coordinating month-long vacations for them.
More than 1,000 children have taken part in these holidays to Austria, Poland
and the Black Sea region of Ukraine.
“The doctors
have told us that it is necessary for the kids’ health to get away for a little
while from the contamination that surrounds them,” says Fr. Kaminski. “The
earth that they live on is poisoned. The food and soil are no good.”
Slavutych
continues to be a most unique city. None of its buildings is more than 25 years
old. There are nice homes, excellent schools and public facilities. But the
tradeoff for residents is that the soil remains contaminated, and they try to
walk on concrete most of the time.
Near St. Eugene
De Mazenod Church there is a small memorial to the victims of Chernobyl. The
memorial is engraved, “From the ashes of the old we will build a new world.” (www.omiusa.org)
