BALTIMORE — Whether by prayer or protest, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we've seen the outpouring of support throughout Charm City.
WMAR-2 News is looking at the personal connection the invasion of Ukraine has on a native right here in Baltimore relying on his faith during his country's fight.
“It's the quietness and the place that you want to be in. You can pray. You can think about who you are, what you're doing. have you done enough? Haven’t you done enough?” said John Voytovich who sits in the pews of his church week in week out.
St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church is not just a building to him. It's a house of worship standing a little taller for those short on strength.
"They're angry. They're hurt. They're scared for the families. They have their nieces and nephews over there,” he explained.
"You look at the murals, the saints. you look at the trinity up there. It makes you feel stronger,” he said.
You look around and everything that you see is inspiring.
Lately, he's praying for an end to the destruction of Ukraine, his home country.
It’s the place connecting him to other members of the congregations and memories of his family's own painful history
"My mom was taken off the streets coming home from school. She was about 12 or 13, never saw her mother again. She had to go to work camps, cook wash, whatever they did in the work camps,” Voytovich told WMAR.
Watching heartbreak pumping through the headlines gives him a sense of clarity about his mom he's never had before.
"You never understood why she was so protective but when you hear the story about what happened being on the cattle car....She's inside the cart. Her parents are outside,” he said.
Seeing it now play out all over again, he considers what it would look like through his mom's eyes.
"If she was still alive today, it would be like deja vu all over again. People are running a country's being destroyed. The history's being destroyed," he said. "I don't understand it. Its evil its barbaric. Its reckless. They don't care. People do care."
That’s why is why donations have flown in constantly, why the streets on Sunday were filled with protestors and why the pews a packed with prayerful believers like John.
He’s clinging to faith he can't see but one, he certainly believes just as his mom did the peace will once again return to Ukraine
"She would start praying. She would start praying to the blessed mother, a rosary,” said Voytovich.
