On November 23 at Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church at Rama, the Rama Golden Jets invited Rev. Joakim Rac to share his thoughts on the Holodomor famine following the Divine Liturgy.
Rev. Rac thoroughly described the stages of development of the genocide policy and the years that led up to this horrific famine.
The central figure of the famine was Joseph Stalin, who was born in Gori, Georgia in the Russian Empire and was General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1952.
鈥淗e was a ruthless man who was determined to industrialize the country very quickly, thus creating an artificial famine," said Rac. 鈥淭his meant attacking the farmers by taking most of their land and from whatever few acres were left, he imposed on them a quota that they had to fulfill by giving the required number of bushels to the State.
鈥淭he quotas became bigger and bigger and due to the drought years of the 1930s, they could no longer fulfill their quotas and thus were forced to give something they never had. The Soviet authorities confiscated everything and whoever resisted was sent to the labor camps in Siberia.鈥� Rac mentioned that the famine didn't discriminate nationalities as it affected not only Ukrainians, but also the Polish, Hungarians, Russians and others who starved and died.
"So we are remembering the millions of victims today and praying for them as well as praying for our own country to develop good policies and good government to promote justice and peace throughout the world.
"If there is no God, the worst possible human takes over and becomes God for everyone," he concluded.
The commemoration continued with the lighting of the Holodomor candle by Ron and Pat Leniuk, members of the Rama Golden Jets.
All those present joined in singing Eternal Memory in Ukrainian followed by praying one decade of the rosary. The final hymn was God, Our Father, We Adore You.
Christine Dyky, President of the Rama Golden Jets expressed appreciation to Rev. Rac on behalf of the Club.
