A young Spanish priest decided to stay with his parishioners in Ukraine rather than flee for safety despite the Russian invasion and a growing litany of serious war crimes against the civilian population.

Father Pedro Zafra is a 31-year-old priest from Córdoba, Spain, who arrived in Kyiv in 2011 for priestly formation. He was ordained last June and is a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. The priest serves the parish of the Assumption of the Virgin in the Ukrainian capital.

“It was an inner battle,” he said, adding that he found the answer in prayer with a passage from the Gospel which “spoke of the mission and the support of God’s grace to carry it forward,” and that’s why he decided to stay.

“We have several elderly people in wheelchairs, families with their small and adolescent children, and some young missionaries,” Fr. Zafra told the Spanish daily ABC, and stressed that living through this situation in community “helps us a lot to cope with it.”

“I’m not a hero. I couldn’t handle this situation by myself. It’s God who gives me strength through prayer and the sacraments,” he said.