Knights of Columbus director Szymon Czyszek says the Order’s efforts to help Ukrainians fleeing the country as Russia continues its aggression has done something miraculous: united Catholics and the people of Eastern Europe in a way desperately needed in a time of great division.

He is seeing, he said Tuesday, ” a beautiful outpouring of support and solidarity to welcome the Ukrainian people.”

Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly announced in late February that the Knights of Columbus had pledged $1 million “for immediate distribution to support Ukrainians impacted by the recent Russian invasion of their country.” A new fund, the Ukraine Solidarity Fund, was also created that matched funds raised up to an additional $500,000. In less than 2 weeks, the group has raised almost $4.5 million and have set up “mercy huts” at the Polish border to supply to fleeing Ukrainians medical supplies, food, clothing, shelter and other necessities. All funds raised, says Czyszek, will go to help the refugees.

The name of the new fund, Solidarity, hearkens back to the Solidarity Movement in the wake of World War II, when Soviet Russia began to dismantle governments in eastern European countries and install pro-Moscow leadership. The opposition to this movement was led by Polish peace leader Lech Walesa, who would eventually go on to lead Poland as president in the early 90s, and Pope John Paul II. The efforts of the Solidarity Movement in the late 70s and 80s played a huge role in the fall of the Soviet Union, Czyszek says. And it’s in this tradition that the Knights of Columbus are operating today in Ukraine and Poland.

“I’m very hopeful, when I think of the solidarity movement,” Czyszek says. “[It was] really a revolution of conscience that led to the end of the Soviet Union.”

Their new work in Solidarity so far, says Czyszek, has been a “great sign of unity” as other Catholic charities in the region like Caritas International have joined the effort. “We want to convey to the people of Ukraine [that] we are there to build unity when there are so many reasons to be divided…that’s really our mission,” Czyszek says.

And there are thousands of available hands. The Knights in Poland, established in 2006, is currently 6,840 members strong. Ukraine counts 40 Knights councils, the first established six years later, with nearly 2,000 members.

Collection sites in Poland are located in Kraków, Radom and Tomaszów Lubelski, where medical supplies, warm clothing, and necessities are being gathered and distributed. Ukrainian Knights have created an “Anti-Crisis Committee,” comprised of the state deputy, state secretary and a district deputy, to help coordinate and distribute refugee aid.

The “mercy huts” at the border welcome those fleeing what Czyszek says is utter destruction in some cities. The operation’s mantra carries on the Knights tradition of “Everybody Welcome, Everything Free”.

“I think that everybody’s preparing for long term process,” Czyszek says. “Many cities in Ukraine have been destroyed – this will not be a short-term thing.”

But, says Czyszek, digging in and providing aid to immigrants and refugees is part of the gift and the grace established by Knights founder Father Michael McGivney. McGiveny was the son of Irish immigrants to America at a time when anti-Irish sentiment was pervasive and hostile. He founded the Knights of Columbus, in part to give the men of his community in late 1800s New England a fellowship and fraternity that was different from the ones they found at saloons or in secret societies popular at the time. The hope was that they would find grace among the crises of life.

Czyszek says the Knights mandate is the same today, over a hundred years later and thousands of miles away from the Eastern shore of the United States.

“This is the commitment of the Knights of Columbus,” says Czyszek. “We want to overcome evil with good.”