Ukrainian Catholic Church priest in Pennsylvania on beauty of Ukrainian traditions and why Trump can be helpful for Ukraine

So, before we start discussing all the topics I’ve already mentioned, I want to clarify something for myself. How is it that you, a person born in Canada who lived in the Toronto area and later moved to the United States, became not just a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, but of the Ukrainian Catholic Church – the Church that we in Ukraine call the Greek Catholic Church?

I understand that there are many Ukrainians in the Toronto area, but they are still a minority. I also know that Ukrainian churches exist there, but again, they are in the minority. So, how did this happen? Were you somehow connected to this Church before? Or perhaps you had ties to Ukraine? And why the Eastern Rite?

I had as much to do with Ukraine as I did with Mozambique, Rwanda, or India. I had no connection to Ukraine. But when I accidentally discovered it, nothing is truly accidental, God is behind all these things, I couldn’t get enough of it. It was a richness and beauty I had never known in my life.

I was studying to become a Roman Catholic priest when, in 1998, I went to Ukraine to teach English through the Ukrainian Catholic University. I was deeply moved by its people who had suffered so much.

I was struck by the depth of their faith, the richness of their culture, and the fearless heroes who stood against a brutal system of oppression. I knew I couldn’t just admire it. I had to be part of it. The beauty of its traditions far exceeds what we have here in the West. We have lost our roots and our sense of direction, while Ukraine has managed to preserve those ancient and timeless truths. And in their generosity, they welcomed me with open arms.

So, as far as I understand, you were not deciding between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Catholicism or Ukrainian Catholicism. You had already chosen the Ukrainian Catholic Church, right?

Yes, no doubt about it. Beauty attracts the soul. The West, especially since the French Revolution, has attacked its traditions and some of its most beautiful monuments.

For whatever reason, the Ukrainian soul has a deep attachment to beauty, lyrical beauty in poetry, in song, in iconography. It serves as a refuge in the storm. I believe the West needs Ukraine just as much as Ukraine needs the West at this point in its history.

How many times have you been to Ukraine?

Oh, probably 10.

I lived there for three years in the late 1990s during the time of President Kuchma and then left around 2002. I didn’t return until 2012. People said there would never be another revolution, that the opportunity from the Orange Revolution had been lost, and that Ukraine was slowly sliding back into Moscow's orbit.

Little did we know that just two years later, in 2014, everything would change with the Maidan. And here we are now in an epic struggle for Ukraine’s very survival.

I went back on the first day of the war to rescue 23 orphans, and then...

Father, we’ll talk about this in detail later, but right now I would like to ask you one more question. I know that you are married to a Ukrainian woman. Could you please tell us a few words about your family?

Yes. She helped me fall even more in love with Ukraine.

When I went there to teach English, I met my lovely wife, Helena, from the Chervonohrad area, Sosninka. We were married in Lviv, in Shevchenkivskyi Hai, and two of our seven children were born in Lviv Oblast. Since then, we have relocated to Canada and now live in the United States.

Through her example and encouragement, I have been able to serve as a priest in our Ukrainian Catholic Church.

And may God bless your family.

Father Charron, let's talk about what you have already started to share. I would call it a rescue operation or a rescue mission. You mentioned that at the very beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, you came to rescue Ukrainian orphans. Could you please tell us in detail what it was?

Many members of our parish are American and don’t have Ukrainian roots. One of them even wanted to adopt a child from Ukraine.….and we were helping them through the adoption process. Then the war started. A man in the parish and his wife had promised one of these children that if anything bad ever happened, they would be there for that child. When the war began, this man, who does not speak any Ukrainian and has no Ukrainian heritage, said, "Their fight is my fight, and I’m going over to rescue those orphans."

The children were directly in the line of attack from Russian forces advancing from the north. They were in the Kyiv area, and we had a very narrow window of time. As you know, Yuri, at that moment, everyone was trying to evacuate Ukraine and cross into Poland.

We immediately flew to the airport, got on the first available flight, and traveled from Pittsburgh to Helsinki to Warsaw. From there, we took a taxi straight from the airport and drove three and a half, maybe four hours, perhaps even longer, I can’t remember, to the border with Ukraine.

We were the only people going into Ukraine except for one other person, while hundreds of thousands were desperately trying to get out. That was when we realized that this might be our moment. No one knew what would happen next, but we decided that our own lives and personal hopes didn’t matter.

What mattered was getting in and fulfilling the promise we had made to rescue those orphans. And we prayed that God would guide and support us in this mission.

How many children in total did you rescue?

There were 23 orphans, and then there were about 17 children with their mothers. They were not orphans, but they wanted to get to safety as quickly as possible. So in total, there were about 45 people.

And so, after you arrived at the orphanage, you took these children and the mothers of some of them. Where did you take them next?

Yes, at that point it was extremely difficult to get out because of the massive flood of people trying to leave through Poland. The only option we could even consider was a bus because buses were given priority with green zone access. Traveling in individual cars was not possible as we simply didn’t have the means to do that.

I was able to reach out to friends from my time teaching in Ukraine back in 1999 to help me find a bus. We had a very heroic bus driver who refused to take money. We only paid for the gas. We decided that it was in everyone’s best interest not to wait at the Polish border with so many others but instead to go through the Carpathians into Slovakia. And that is where we went.

So you went to Slovakia, and where are these children now?

So they are now spread out in different places.

What happened was that we got to Slovakia, and the ultimate goal was to bring them to America to stay here with their legal guardian until the war ended.

We went to the Ukrainian consulate in Krakow, Poland, and met with the ambassador. We told him that we wanted to do what was in the best interest of these children while ensuring everything was done in accordance with the law.

He told us, "What you have done is wonderful, and on behalf of Ukraine, we are very grateful, but you cannot take these children overseas. They need to stay close to Ukraine."

The legal guardian of the 23 orphans had relatives in Lithuania, so the children stayed there for almost a year, about eight months, I believe.

When the situation became somewhat calmer, they were able to return to Ukraine. Since then, they have been placed with different families who have been able to love and care for them.

But is it possible that they could be adopted by an American someday? For example, like the one you mentioned who was adopted by a member of your church?

Perhaps one day. My understanding is - and you and your viewers know better than I do. As I understand it, foreign adoptions are not allowed while the war is ongoing. Once the war ends, the adoption process can resume. But for now, it remains impossible.

Well, I hope that after the war ends, they will be adopted. Maybe here in Ukraine, maybe somewhere abroad, but they will be because they need it.

Father, one more question about this rescue operation, if I may call it that. You haven’t mentioned anything about your daughter, but I have seen many of your interviews on YouTube, and you said that she was also involved in this mission.

Unbeknownst to me, about a day before I was set to return to America, she left school. She is a university student, and she left the university, got on a plane, and traveled to be with the orphans as they went to Lithuania. She wanted to make sure they were safe, assist their guardian, and help Alan, the gentleman who was supporting and financing much of the operation. Alan later made about 10 trips to Ukraine to continue providing aid.

Yes, my daughter Sophia – I am very proud of her. She later returned to Ukraine and went to Lithuania, where she helped many people. She also had to enter Ukraine to assist elderly individuals who were unable to leave on their own. She helped them with their medication and documents, ensuring they could cross the border to safety.

I am very proud of my daughter Sophia.

And we are very proud of your daughter as well. In fact, we are proud of everything you do for us, Father. Okay, let’s talk about something else.

You were asked to lead a prayer before the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on the day when there was an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States. How did it happen that the organizers invited you? As far as I understand, Donald Trump is evangelical, a Protestant, at least from what I have read and know. Yet they did not invite a Roman Catholic priest, representing the largest Christian denomination in the United States, nor an evangelical pastor. Instead, they invited a priest from the Greek Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Catholic Church. How did that come about?

Yes, well, Mr. Trump is not a foolish man. He is a very wise and intelligent leader, and his campaign staff is well-informed. They knew that Western Pennsylvania has a 130-year history of Ukrainian immigration. So it wasn’t just me.

There was also a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who was invited to open the rally. Another Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest was asked to lead a prayer at a different rally. For whatever reason, they chose to invite me as well.

They understand that Ukrainian Catholics deeply value tradition and that many Ukrainian Catholics live in this region. I believe that is why they invited me. They wanted to show that they stand for the same values as Ukrainian Christians and wanted that to be reflected in all three of their main rallies in Western Pennsylvania.

Father, what did you say in that prayer?

You know, I pray that we may make our nation great again, but that can only happen through God's grace. It is through His grace that our nation will be protected and set right. And with our nation on the right path, we can help the world find its way as well. But without God's grace and His Holy Spirit, this nation cannot overcome the crisis it is currently facing. We need that grace to overcome the challenges, violence, and attacks directed against our country, our families, and the world. That was my prayer. And, providentially, some other things happened that day as well.

So, about those other things, Father Charron, can we say that God saved the life of the then-presidential candidate of the United States, Donald Trump, through your prayer?

After all, Saint James, in his epistle, chapter five, verse 16, writes that "the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective."

You know, we priests are worthless servants. We are like vessels of clay that God can use and dispose of as He wills. When we are ordained, we make a promise to serve God as He desires, not as we wish.

Yes, I believe that through the uplifted hands of a man of prayer, great things can happen, and I believe that is what happened on that particular day. I am not ashamed to say that.

I told people in the crowd as much. They asked why I was leaving a little early, just before he was shot, and I explained it in the presence of the Secret Service and the media. I told them, "My prayer, my job, is done," which was to pray for his protection. But their job was to continue praying because prayer saves people, and prayer saves nations. I told them they had to pray because there were people who wanted to shoot him.

Father Charron, did you have a chance to speak with Donald Trump at that time, even briefly?

Yes, I did. Yes. What we spoke about: I can't tell you everything we discussed, but I can say that we spoke about Ukraine. It was a very brief conversation, lasting maybe two minutes. I told him: "Mr. Trump, you were not given enough credit for what you did for Ukraine during your first administration. You provided Javelin missiles, which were instrumental in Ukraine's defense during the first week of the war. You gave them access to training with NATO groups. You also provided smaller ships for the Black Sea. You did many things like this, and I am grateful to you for that. I would ask that you consider extending and continuing the same policy of supporting Ukraine in your second administration. He responded, "Thank you." Then he added, "If I were president, this war never would have happened. But to have peace, we need strength. That's what we want – we want America to be strong again so that our allies will be secure." And that was basically our conversation.

Father, one more thing about this event in Butler, Pennsylvania. During his inaugural address on January 20th, Donald Trump said the following: "Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and I believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again."

Was that the reason?

I believe so. I believe that God uses people, just as He used Cyrus in the Book of Isaiah, and He has used many rulers throughout history to fulfill His purposes. I see this in Donald J. Trump as well. He, like all of us on this planet, is a sinner, yet I believe God is using him to make our country and the world better by enacting laws that protect life and family, not just in the United States but globally.

He has withheld funding for abortions, which I believe is deeply connected to the broader moral crisis in the world today. We have war in Ukraine because of abortion. We face the threat of nuclear war because of abortion. It is the trivialization of human worth. If the womb of a mother is not safe, then nowhere on Earth is human life safe. I believe he has been used by God to advance the gospel of life and the rights of the family, and the events of that day confirmed it for me as a priest.

I am a priest and the founder of a nonprofit organization called the Holy Protection (Pokrov) of the Mother of God, which promotes Mary’s role as Protectress. Neither Donald Trump nor his team knew this when they asked me to pray that day. However, when I give talks, I often speak about Mary’s role as Protectress.

That day was also historically significant in relation to Mary. On July 13, 1917, she appeared to the shepherd children in Fatima and gave a prophecy that Russia would spread its errors around the world. It was on that same day that I spoke with Trump about Russia’s errors.

Right across from where he spoke, there was a shrine, a small Tikhi Shopka (Kaplitskaya), dedicated to this very same devotion to Mary, Our Lady of Fatima. All of this was happening on a day dedicated to Mary, July 13, which on the Roman Catholic calendar is the feast of Rosa Mystica.

Additionally, this date connects with another Marian event. On May 13, 1980, the actual feast of Fatima, a bullet also grazed the body of Pope John Paul II and nearly took his life. This, too, was a Marian date, linking these events to Fatima.

All of these are signs that God is not only involved in what is happening, but that it has a special Marian significance. It is prophetic for world history. Ukraine is at the center of it, America is at the center of it, and we are living in extraordinary times.

Let's talk for a few minutes about the hopes the Ukrainian people have for Donald Trump. Do you personally believe that Donald Trump will be able to help end this brutal Russian war in Ukraine?

I do believe that, and I believe it despite the words of some of his strongest supporters in his circle. Some of them are not supportive of Ukraine. Tucker Carlson, for example, and JD Vance have made statements that are not helpful. Others in conservative media have also not been friendly toward Ukraine.

However, I listened to Vice President Mike Pence two days ago, and he is convinced, as I am from my conversation with President Trump, that Trump will be helpful to Ukraine. He is not a radical isolationist like some of the people in his circle.

He believes that all nations desire prosperity and freedom, and that is what he seeks. Ukraine is our ally, an ally in freedom, and I do not think he is going to abandon our allies.

I believe he would see that as a sign of weakness, similar to what Biden did in Afghanistan. There is no way that President Trump would want to repeat Biden’s template by abandoning an ally.

So I do believe that, despite some of the people around him, he himself will decide to stand by Ukraine, honor the Budapest Memorandum, and set an example to the world that if you are friends with the United States, the United States will be friends with you.
 

And we really do hope that he will be able to end this war, and we want this to happen as soon as possible. But who knows? We'll see.

One more question. Right now, there are many Ukrainians in the United States who fled the war, either at the very beginning of the Russian invasion or later. Some of them may even live in the area where you serve as a priest in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Does your church have any contact with these people? Do you in any way help the refugees from Ukraine who are now in the United States?

Yes, so we have helped. My wife and I have sponsored about eight people to come, and many others in our network have also helped sponsor people. Our support is focused on helping them get on their feet when they arrive here.

There is no real help in simply providing everything they want. That does not benefit them; it harms their dignity. We believe the greatest help we can give is to bring them here until the war ends and support them in learning the language. That is what my wife does. She dedicates hours upon hours to helping them learn English.

We also connect them with people, and often, they find opportunities for employment and housing on their own. Once they are settled, they become independent, and that is a great source of dignity, to know that they are using the gifts God has given them to provide for their families. They do not need handouts here, and we do not believe in simply giving handouts.

We help when it is needed, but we never do for others what they can do for themselves. Our role is to assist them in getting here, finding employment, learning the language, and securing housing. After that, they are on their own. That is the great thing about this country. If you come here and want to work, you can provide for yourself and your family.

Ultimately, our greatest hope is for them to return to Ukraine so that Ukraine does not disappear from the face of the earth. There is a real demographic crisis in Ukraine, as you know. Ukraine will not be helped in the long term if all of its people leave. We are here to help in the short term, but we need other nations inspired by America’s example to rise and rebuild, starting with my beloved Ukraine.

Thank you very much, Father, for your help and support, for everything you do for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. That is very kind of you. But one more question. You know that here in Ukraine, we often hear that people in the West are tired of the war and want it to end as soon as possible, and I do understand them.

But what do people in the United States, I mean Christians, Catholics, not just Roman Catholics but also, for example, those in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, think and say about the Russian war in Ukraine now?

Well, people in general are tired of the war. Let me start by saying that. Ukrainians are tired of the war. Everyone is tired of the war. It is not in the news cycle as much as it was in the first months. Back then, it was the main news story for 90, 100, even 120 days. That is no longer the case.

People have largely forgotten about the war in Ukraine. Those who are still aware of it are very much exhausted by it. They want it to end. We see that in the decline in donations. At the beginning, people gave a lot of money to help with aid to Ukraine, but that is just not happening as much anymore. People are fatigued. War fatigue is real. Of course, no one is more tired of it than the men and women serving in Ukraine’s army.

At the same time, I want your viewers to understand that there are actually two wars. You are tired of one war, and we are tired of another. There is the war everyone sees, where Ukraine is bleeding, the physical war.

But Ukraine must also understand that another war is being waged right now, and that is the cultural war in the West, the one that Donald Trump and many others are fighting against. It is a war against dignity, against family, against God-given sexuality, and Ukraine is susceptible to it. This war is now coming for your people as well.

This is a form of ideological, cultural, and religious war. My fear for Ukraine is that once this physical war with Russia ends – and it will end – people will wholeheartedly embrace the West without realizing they are walking into the arms of the culture war that is overtaking Europe and America. They may uncritically accept all of these destructive ideological missiles, the ones that attack the mind and heart of human dignity. You see this with the promotion of gay marriage, attacks on children's dignity, and the erosion of parental rights.

Ukraine must be prepared. This war with Russia will end, but then the country will have to enter into an ideological and spiritual war against attacks on the family and the Christian faith. And that war will be even greater.

Father SheRon, thank you very much for joining me today. Thank you for everything you have shared. And thank you for all the help and support we are receiving from you.

May God bless you personally, your church, and your family. Anytime you are in Ukraine, please come visit us.

Thank you so much. I ask all of you to pray for Ukraine and for America, so that we may stand together.