U.S. Vice President JD Vance, right, reacts as President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Feb. 28 in Washington. (OSV News/Reuters/Brian Snyder)
by Rhina Guidos
A Dominican sister in Spain, known for her work with war victims, called out U.S. President Donald Trump for his treatment of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and asked for the support of the embattled country and its people, following a heated Feb. 28 meeting between the leaders of both nations at the White House.
"Someone has to stop him in his tracks because it is not acceptable that the world is in such a state and he can say whatever he likes," said Sr. Lucia Caram in a video on X Feb. 28, about Trump, who called Zelenskyy a dictator and falsely said Ukraine started the war with Russia, now in its third year. (Trump later said he couldn't believe he had called him a dictator.)
Sr. Lucia Caram called out U.S. President Donald Trump for his treatment of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy. After Russia's 2022 invasion, Caram established the Santa Clara Foundation that has transported more than 4,000 from Ukraine to Spain.
Las palabras y acciones de Trump hacia #Zelenski y #Ucrania no solo revelan un desprecio absoluto por un pueblo que lucha por su libertad, sino que también representan una afrenta cruel a la dignidad humana.
Su actitud no es solo una falta de respeto, es una burla insensible a… pic.twitter.com/pLVNNzE6LV— Sor Lucía Caram (@sorluciacaram) February 28, 2025
After Russia's February 2022 invasion, Caram established the Santa Clara Foundation in Catalonia that has transported more than 4,000 from Ukraine to a facility in Spain that helps them as they recuperate from lost limbs and other war-related injuries. She also has taken truckloads of food and other necessities into the country as well as to border regions, such as Moldova, where Ukrainians have fled, and helped families reunite as the violence has subsided in some areas.
"We cannot stand by and let the dignity of the Ukrainian people be trampled on, the number of victims ignored and, on top of that, the victims themselves criminalized," she said in the video. "Who started this war? Russia. And who has business with Russia and wants to make a business out of people's lives? The president of the United States."
Caram said there is no room for "impartiality," and those who believe in democracy must "unite against the tyrant and the oppressor." Priests and others have attacked her on social media but she has kept posting videos of those affected by the war.
"In the name of humanity, in the name of our need for peace and on the verge of stopping the world war that Donald Trump is provoking, we must unite and we must not be intransigent with democratic, ethical and human values," she said.
'Someone has to stop him in his tracks because it is not acceptable that the world is in such a state and he can say whatever he likes.'
-Sr. Lucia Caram, speaking about President Trump after his Feb. 28 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Dominican Sr. Lucia Caram visits with soldiers at an undisclosed location in Ukraine in 2023. Since Rusia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Caram has helped transport and care for the injured, provide food and necessities for Ukrainian refugees and advocated for peace in the conflict. (GSR photo/Courtesy of Sr. Lucia Caram)
A few days after the White House debacle, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also issued a Lenten reflection March 3, saying it was joining Pope Francis in his solidarity with Ukraine.
"As we begin the holy Season of Lent, a time of prayer, penance, and charity, we join our Holy Father, Pope Francis, in his solidarity with the 'martyred people of Ukraine,' " said Timothy Broglio, president of the bishops' conference and archbishop of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. "We pray and hope that the United States, in concert with the wider international community, works with perseverance for a just peace and an end to aggression."
Broglio also referenced Ukraine's past suffering under Russian control. Under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or USSR, which promoted atheism, Ukrainian Catholics and other religious groups faced persecution. Some were killed, tortured and sent to serve in labor camps, while schools, churches and convents were taken over by the government and the church operated in secret.
"As Catholics, we are acutely aware that every past occupation of Ukraine has resulted in various degrees of repression of the Catholic Church in the country; we must not tolerate the forcing of our brothers and sisters underground again," he said.
