On Saturday 9 October 2022, the Ad Pacem association organised a bike ride on the cycle paths of south-western Luxembourg. Ten people met at 9 am to start from the station in Pétange. The group took several breaks along the 40 km route. At noon, everyone had lunch in the open air. As the route was organised in a loop, at about 5 p.m. the whole group arrived again at the station of Pétange from where they had started. This outing through the fields and along the woods was another experience to rediscover the bicycle as an ecological, healthy and group way of travelling.
Our support for Ukrainian scholarship holders and patients in 2021
Conference with Mrs Galina Ackerman on 7 May 2022
Updated charter of projects and objectives of the association
On Saturday 26 March 2022 the board of the association “Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War” held its fifth general assembly online. Four of the board members were present, Mr. Anselmo Malvetti excused himself for professional reasons. Several members were also excused.
Opening of the meeting
After giving a general overview of the items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni explained why since 24 February Europe has entered a new area of conflict. The period of peace that had preserved our continent since 1945 was over. Therefore, in recent weeks, all the activities of the association have been focused on organising humanitarian aid sent to Ukraine and receiving Ukrainian refugee families in our Greater Region. He spoke about the many difficulties in finding people willing to take in mothers with their children, especially when these people have space. He then went on to give an overview of the activities carried out during the year 2021.
In recent days, the war situation in Ukraine has deteriorated dramatically. Millions of Ukrainians are on the run and many more are preparing to flee Russian bombing raids on populated centres and civilians.
You can help in the following two ways:
Many refugees come to us with their whole family, sometimes with a cat or dog. We are looking for families or individuals who are willing to host in their homes or in one of their spare houses/apartments, families consisting of: – a mother with two or three children, – a couple with their two or three children, or – a family with an elderly person. Please write to us at [email protected] if you are willing and able to host such a family.
We are also currently organising help in Ukraine with a Greek Catholic priest and his parish. He himself receives a list of medicines from doctors working in the hospitals, which are essential for treating the sick and injured. We send him the necessary money via WesternUnion so that he can buy these medicines in pharmacies. Part of the money will be used to buy food for internal refugees.
Our account: IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 at the Caisse Rurale Raiffeisen (CCRALULL) in Luxembourg
Thank you for helping the refugees and wounded of the war in Ukraine.
We from “Ad Pacem” are currently organising humanitarian aid for Ukrainians (refugees) in the west of the country. You can help in the following two ways:
Because of the war, there is a shortage of basic materials and medicines. If you have any of the materials and/or medicines, dressings, and instruments on the attached list, you can drop them off this Thursday or Friday from 4pm to 7.30pm at these three addresses:
16 route d’Errouville, 54680 Crusnes (France)
76 rue Henri Bessemer, 4516 Differdange (Luxembourg)
21 rue Henri Luck, 3737 Rumelange (Luxembourg)
You can make a donation on our account with the mention “food and medicine donation”. The money will be sent to our partners on the spot to buy food and medicine in the markets and shops in Western Ukraine. Some medicines that would not be available there will be purchased here. These medicines and food supplies are for refugees arriving from major cities exposed to intense Russian shelling. IBAN: LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 BIC: CCRALULL (Banque Raiffeisen Luxembourg)
We thank you in advance for your help and generosity! Please share this newsletter with your friends!
The Association Committee “Ad Pacem servandam” held its peace march this year in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the march was to attend important war sites from World War II and the Bosnian War (1992-1995) to see if the consequences of these wars can still be felt today.
After spending several days trekking in unique mountainous terrain, we visited war museums and monuments in Mostar and Sarajevo. During meetings with representatives of the religious communities we learned how difficult their coexistence is today. The wounds of the Bosnian wars are not yet healed. In Jablanica we also had the opportunity to learn about the aftermath of the Battle of Neretva.
Our association Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War – is organizing two public lectures to spread the truth about the war in Eastern Ukraine.
Our speaker, Mr. Kozlovsky, is a Ukrainian historian and religious researcher, poet, writer and essayist. He participated in the Euromaidan protests in Donetsk, the capital of Ukraine’s Donbass, when Russian special forces entered eastern Ukraine and occupied the city. He was one of the organizers of the Interreligious Prayer Marathon for the Unity of Ukraine (March-November 2014, Donetsk).
On January 27, 2016, he was captured by fighters of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” and remained in captivity for almost two years (700 days) until December 27, 2017. Since his release, Kozlovsky has been actively engaged in campaigning for the release of Ukrainian prisoners in the Donbass and Crimea.
Ad Pacem is organizing three meetings to give Mr. Kozlovsky the opportunity to talk about this cruel and still ongoing war. It will be possible to ask him questions directly, with translation on the spot.
The three public events
On Friday, October 15, at 8:00 p.m., his testimony will take place in Luxembourg, in the commune of Mersch, in Lintgen, 17 rue du cimetière.
On Saturday, October 16, at 10:30 a.m., a public conference will be held in France at the Maison pastorale in Mont-St-Martin, 1 avenue du bois.
On Saturday, October 16 at 4:00 p.m., a charity concert for civilian victims of the war in Ukraine will be held in the church of Notre Dame de Villerupt (Place Jeanne d’Arc) in France.
The organist from Longwy, Mrs. Marie-Paule Baumgartner-Sendron, and her students Laura and Daniel Pantaleoni will play works by Bach, Pachelbel, Boely, Vierne and others. In the middle of the concert, Mr. Kozlovsky will talk about the war in Ukraine. Light refreshments will be offered at the end of the concert.
The anti-COVID19 rules in force will be observed.
For those who cannot travel to Luxembourg or France, Ad Pacem will organize a live streaming of the conference on Saturday morning.
In Newsletter No. 10 we made an appeal to support the urgent operation of Igor, a civilian victim who was seriously injured in February 2021 during clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.
Since then, Igor has been waiting at home for the possibility of an operation. But the family could not raise the money needed to pay for the operation. In the meantime Igor’s condition was getting worse.
At the end of April, we heard about his case from someone we knew. We decided to pay the costs of the operation and all the necessary treatments.
In May the operation, which had been postponed several times, could be performed. It was an operation that lasted from morning to night and where all the pieces of projectiles that Igor had received in the abdomen were removed. And his organs were put back in their place. Igor was in hospital for a month and went through a very tough post-operative period.
Today he has returned home and continues daily rehabilitation treatment in hospital. For weeks he will have to keep a strict diet but will remain disabled for the rest of his life. In a recent phone call, he thanked our association and all the donors who spontaneously made a donation to save his life.
The war in Eastern Ukraine, which has almost disappeared from our media, continues to claim victims every day. Here is an urgent case that our association “Ad Pacem” has decided to support these days, if it is possible with your help.
It is an urgent operation for young Igor, a civilian victim wounded by stray bullets on the front line. His family does not have the money to pay for the operation and his stay in hospital.
Urgent surgery
In recent weeks, shooting has increased on the frontline where the Ukrainian army and Russian-armed separatists face each other. Many families continue to live there because they cannot flee elsewhere, having any friends or family to take them in.
This is the case of 22-year-old Igor, who lives with his father (who earns his living from temporary jobs) in a village near the front line.
At the end of February, he was in his garden when he was seriously wounded by stray bullets to the abdomen and hand. A first operation was carried out to urgently and temporarily treat his abdominal wound and remove two fingers. The second and more important operation was postponed several times because of the Covid health crisis in the region. We know that his father’s financial situation does not allow him to pay for this second operation, which should take place next Wednesday, 19th of May. But it will only be done if he pays the hospital in advance and brings the medicines he has bought in advance. The surgeon advised him not to buy Russian medicines, which are cheaper but also of much lower quality and ineffective for this operation.
It was through a good acquaintance whom we have been helping for years that we were put in touch by phone with Igor’s desperate father. The operation is necessary to save the life of his son, who will have to stay in hospital for at least twenty days with special treatments. And it is also up to the father to buy all the medicines for after the operation.
According to the information we have at the moment, the expenses for Igor’s operation amount to €800, the purchase of medicines to €400, the hospitalization with special medicines to €400. It is important to know that an average worker earns at best 150 € per month in the territories occupied by the pro-Russian separatists, which is not the case for Igor’s father who has no paid job.
We appeal to your generosity to help Igor. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.
You can make your donation to our bank account IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (BIC: CCRALULL) with the mention “Operation Igor”.
Thank you all very much! We will keep you informed about the follow-up of this urgent help in the coming weeks.
Fifteen members of the Ad Pacem association cycled together for two days on cycle paths in Luxembourg. This bike ride made people understand how much this means of expression reduces air pollution and climate change. And it brings well-being and peace to the mind, soul and body.
On the morning of April 15, they left the Glacis in Luxembourg-city by bike, taking the cycle path no. 2 which, passing by the red bridge and the Kirchberg, led them to Echternach.
The lunch break was at the bus stop in the small village of Rippeg. At the height of Consdorf there was the possibility of seeing on a landscaped square, just on the edge of the cycle path, the enormous American bomb, found in 1990, and which dated from the 2nd World War. The group arrived at the edge of Lake Echternach around 3.30 p.m.
Visit of the Gallo-Roman villa just behind.
The guide of the Museum explained very well the life of the inhabitants of this Gallo-Roman villa which was inhabited from the 1st to the 5th century of our era.
From the roof, which is also the terrace of the museum, you can get a good idea of the size and considerable dimensions of this farm and the land that surrounded it at the time. Inside the museum, the visitor can realize the importance given to the classical studies of the young people of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy as well as to the art of cooking at the time.
The site offers a good overview of the many details that the excavations have brought to light so far.
Evening dinner was taken outdoors on the terrace of the Echternach youth hostel.
Visit of the Basilica and the crypt
On Friday morning, everyone got on their bikes in the direction of Echternach where the group attended the 9 a.m. mass in the basilica. Afterwards, the priest Mr. Erasmy was kind enough to briefly explain the history of the basilica from its beginnings in the 7th century to the present day. He reviewed the various destructions and reconstructions that the basilica has undergone over the centuries.
Under his guidance, the group visited the crypt where the sarcophagus of Saint Willibrord is located, who evangelized this region by propagating the Christian faith there. He is notably the patron saint of Luxembourg and the dancing procession celebrated on Pentecost Tuesday to honor his memory has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity since 2010.
Around 10:30 a.m., the group left Echternach along the Sûre on cycle path n. 3. Shortly before noon a lunch break took place in Born, a small village near the Sûre. After regaining strength, thanks to a barbecue, the group set off again on track n. 3 to the port of Mertert to now take track n. 4 to Niederanven. It is precisely here that the route joins the cycle path n. 2 and the last kilometers of the course thus corresponded to the first of the day before. The arrival at Glacis was around 7:30 p.m.
Tired after these two days of cycling, everyone was able to realize how much, in contact with the air and nature, these physical efforts on the bike help to find relaxation and satisfaction.
But traveling by bike avoids CO2 pollution and reduces greenhouse effects. They support the desired ecological change.
On Saturday, March 6, the committee of the association Ad Pacem servandam (For Peace and Against War) held its fourth general assembly online. All the members of the board were present, 18 members of the association followed the meeting online, and 22 people apologized.
After giving a general overview of the different items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni reviewed all the activities and operations for the year 2020.
The vice-president, Mrs. Natalya Pantaleoni, presented the aid to the victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine as well as the three new scholarship holders from this region that Ad Pacem has been supporting for a few months.
An important point of the 2020 activities was the elaboration of the Ad Pacem 2021 calendar. It was based on photos taken by four members of the association during the Peace March that runs along the front line of the Great War between 1915 and 1918 between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was sold in parishes, high schools, and among members and friends.
Mr. Christian Welter, the treasurer, presented a detailed financial report for the year 2020 which was validated by the auditor Mr. Patrice Picart.
The committee is pleased to announce the acceptance of a new member, Mr. Laurent Tran Van Mang. The last items on the agenda concerned the next Peace March that the association plans to make in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the traces of the Balkan wars of the 1990-s. It also plans some outings with young people (bike trips, museum visits, etc.) and plans meetings with war victims.
For one week, from Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September 2020, some of our members walked a stretch of the 650 km “Sentiero della Pace” (Path of Peace), which runs along the Italian or”Alpine front”of the First World War. It was here that the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies faced each other between 1915 and 1918. The chosen route is located in the Pre-Alps of Vicenza, near the town of Rovereto and Lake Garda.
The aim was to discover, in places of the “Great War”, as the Italians call the First World War, the very harsh reality of a mountain war – little known in Europe – although it claimed about one million victims in the military corps of both countries.
On Saturday 29 February 2020, our association “For peace and against war” invited Mr Gabriel Becker, from Lorraine, to present the Nazi camp of Ban St-Jean in Moselle (F) on the 20th “Salon du Livre et des cultures” in Luxembourg. This camp is in fact a mass grave containing the remains of 20,000 Soviet prisoners of the Second World War.
Before giving the floor to the guest, the President of the Association, Mr Claude Pantaleoni, introduced Mr Becker and his research work within the AFU (French-Ukrainian Association), which is responsible for the rehabilitation of the camp.
The mass grave of Ban St-Jean is in Moselle, near Boulay, about one hour from Luxembourg. Gabriel Becker, a retired German teacher, has been researching testimonies, archive documents and memorabilia for twenty years to save the history of this Soviet prison camp from oblivion. He is vice president and co-founder of the Franco-Ukrainian Association (AFU), which works to preserve the camp.
Becker has published four books in which he explains the drama of the last world war and the ups and downs of the camp’s rehabilitation.
Nazi transit camp
The speaker began by explaining that the local population did not want to deal with this camp after the war and did everything they could to forget the place, partly because the people were worried about their survival and were busy with the difficult organisation of their daily lives.
