Olga Byc gets tears in her eyes when she talks about the anguish of worrying about the fate of her cousins in Ukraine.
They live on farmland in the western part of the country, so for now, they are safe. But it’s impossible, she said, not to agonize about the dire scenarios the future might hold for them and the country.
“I don’t know if I will ever see them again,” Byc said.
A ray of sunshine, she said, has been to see how united people from different backgrounds throughout the Chicago area have been in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“There is so much support,” she said. “It’s wonderful.”
Byc and her brother, Walter Byc of Fox River Grove, were among about 400 people who attended a “Prayer Pilgrimage for Peace” jointly held Thursday afternoon by St. Theresa Catholic Church and Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church, both in Palatine.
The pilgrims gathered at St. Theresa, where they heard a prayer from the Rev. Timothy Fairman. Then they walked about two miles along Northwest Highway and south to Immaculate Conception, where Ukrainian Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk was to lead a prayer. Buses were available to take those who preferred not to walk.
“There was just this deep need to feel like we’re doing something — and we can pray,” said Nicole Carlisle, communications director for St. Theresa. “That’s our spiritual warfare against what’s going on.”
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