On 29.08.1939, began his ministry — together with his companion, Bro.

Charles Dziemba OMI — in the Okop parish, then in the Sarny county of the Polish Volyn Voivodeship. The Oblates" Fathers OMI received an offer from the Ordinary of the Lutsk Diocese, Bp Adolf Piotr Szelążek, to take over one of the newly established parishes, and they chose the parish of Okop, right on Poland's eastern border with Russia, in the distant Pl. Kresy (Eng. Borderlands) of the Polish state. The parish seat, the village of Okop (also: Okopy), where a small church built in 1934 was located, was c. 16 km south of the town of Rokytne and c. 4 km from the state border, defended by units of the Border Protection Corps KOP — the 18th Border Battalion „Rokytne” in the north and the 2nd Border Battalion „Bereźne” in the south, and there were two KOP watchtowers in the area — in the Jamcowa Niwa wilderness outpost and near the village of Netreba.

Roman Catholics — mainly Poles — lived in the area even before 1918, when that part of the partitioned Poland was ruled by the Russian Empire. During the 20 years of independent Poland in the Pl. Kresy, especially in Volyn, many Polish military settlements were founded — for the veterans of the fights for Polish independence in 1918‐1921 — but in Sarny county they were was prob. few and far between. The Oblates OMI soruces indicate that his parish had c. 1,000 faithful. It was based on three villages with a Polish majority: Okopy — in 1939, it might be estimated based on the 1921 and 1931 censuses and the recorded population growth in Sarny County, that c. 230 people lived there, basically all Roman Catholics, living in „60 peasant cottages”; Dołhań — c. 150 people, 98% Roman Catholics; and Borowskie Budki — c. 380 people, 95% Roman Catholics and 5% Orthodox Ukrainians. The parish area also covered Ukrainian villages: Netreba — c. 300 inhabitants, including c. 10% Roman Catholics and 90% Orthodox; Borove — c. 2,100, 5%, 92%, respectively, as well as c. 60 Jews; Karpylivka — respectively: 2,500, 5%, 89% and c. 150 Jews. Generally, the population of the parish was c. 5,700, of whom Roman Catholics constituted c. 18%, Orthodox Ukrainians c. 79%, and c. 200 Jews. The situation was similar throughout the Sarny county.

Two days after reaching their new parish, on 01.09.1939, Germany invaded Poland. 17 later, in accordance with the genocidal agreement between the two allies, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23.08.1939, later confirmed by the so‐called „Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia” of 28.09.1939, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was attacked by Russia, and World War II began.

The Russians occupied his parish on the very first day, i.e. 17.09.1939, and the Russian occupation began.

The Ukrainians in his parish — at least some of them — „were extremely friendly towards the Soviet occupiers […] they built gates to welcome the Soviets entering these territories […] They greeted Soviet delegates with flowers, bread, and salt”. „As soon as the Russians entered, the Ukrainians took over the local offices. They thought it would be theirs”, one Polish witness reported. Such was the case in his parish. Arrests of Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and even the families of Polish military personnel began. In 1940‐1941, many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia” or to the north, e.g. to the vicinity of Arkhangelsk, especially during the first one, on c. 10.02.1940. The reports often mention that „they came at night, without warning, and took away entire families, from babies to the elderly”. „When we went out into the yard, they allowed my mother to look into the chest — unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We practically didn't take anything, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frost at that time”. In addition, 150,000–200,000 men were conscripted into the Russian army, and c. 100,000 were forced to work for Russian industry, mainly in the mines of the Donets Basin, in heavy industry plants in the Urals and in Siberia. Then the surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy. Catechism classes for children in schools were abolished.

After the German attack on 22.06.1941, on its erstwhile ally, the Russians, the Russians withdrew from his parish at the turn of 06‐07.1941. Power was taken over by Ukrainians associated with the Ukr. Поліська Січ (Eng. Polesyan Sich), a clandestine Ukrainian armed formation, formed from 1940 on the orders of the Ukrainian People's Republic URL in exile — i.e. activists of the state, associated e.g. with Simon Petliura, which de facto ceased to exist in 1920 and operated only in exile, supported by, among others, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Its leader was Taras Borovets, nom de guerre „Taras Bulba”, hence the units of the Polesyan Sich were also called „Bulbovtsy”. The Germans, in their offensive against the Russians, bypassed the region and for some time left it in Ukrainian hands — the area under their control went down in history as the „Olevsk Republic”, after the town of Olevsk, which was a border town on the Russian side during the times of independent Poland. This meant that i.a. the town of Rokytne found itself ‐ according to Jewish sources – in a „state of anarchy, and the roaming gangs attackin and robbing Jewish homes”. Only the entry of German troops in mid‐07.1941 put an end to this lawlessness. But the Ukrainian chief of police in Rokytne kept his position, although under German control. The Germans soon transformed this police into the collaborative Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma. The Bulba members collaborated with the Germans — they even organized, de facto with German consent, an anti‐Russian and anti‐Polish demonstration in Rokytne (Taras Bulba was in Rokytne on c. 20.07.1941) — until c. 16.11.1941, when the Germans withdrew the recognition of the Polesyan Sich. Some of the Bulba members, including its commander, Taras Bulba, went underground.

His parish — like Rokytne — found itself in the Germ. Kreisgebiet Sarny (Eng. Sarny County) within the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien (Eng. General District of Volyn‐Podolya), part of the quasi‐state occupied and administered by the Germans, called the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Eng Reich Commissariate of Ukraine). And almost immediately, the persecution of Jews began. Rokytne became the local Jewish concentration center. In 1939, an estimated 2,500 people lived in this town, of which Roman Catholics constituted c. 57% (the Roman Catholic parish had c. 5,500 believers), Orthodox Christians c. 10%, and Jews numbered c. 800. They began to be forced to do slave labor for the Germans. According to the Jewish „Encyclopedia of Ghettos and Camps”: „the food rations allocated to Jews were half of those received by the rest of the population […] the Ukrainian auxiliary police took advantage of the situation to rob and beat Jews with impunity”. On 01.04.1942, an „open” ghetto was established — i.e. without any fence surrounding them, guarded by the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei, as well as the Germ. Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Eng. Jewish Order Service) — consisting of c. 60 households, to which all the Jews were herded. At the same time, Jews from the surrounding villages, including those from his parish, were herded to Rokytne, as a result of which the population of the ghetto more than doubled. This led to the creation of a second, smaller ghetto. On 25.08.1942, all the Jews — c. 1,630 — were forced to gather in the main square of the town. They were divided into two groups: women with children and men. Then some of the Jews began to escape. The Germans and the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei opened fire on the gathered Jews. C. 300 Jews were killed, but c. 700 managed to escape. The remaining c. 600 were loaded onto freight wagons and taken to Sarny — on a strategic railway line connecting Sarny with Kiev — where they were all murdered on 27.08.1942. The fate of the escapees varied. A large number were handed over to the murderous hands of the Germans and the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei — as one witness reported, „for killing a Jew or revealing his location or indicating a farmer who had sheltered or helped such a person — a reward was expected”. Some hid in the forests and joined the partisans — as the same witness recalled: some „hid in small groups in the nearby, quite large forest masses. These people were generally supported by the local Polish population. Contacts usually took place under the cover of darkness to prevent the fact of helping Jews from being recognized”. Finally, some went east, to the other side of the former Polish–Russian border, and there received help from the local Baptists.

Some Jews managed to reach his parish. A witness described the following case from Borowskie Budki in Okopy parish: „It was a beautiful, sunny summer day, in the early morning hours of 1942. At that time, intensive work was going on both in the houses and in the fields. Suddenly, a girl appeared, dressed in a very bright red and pink silk or satin dress. The girl, quickly overcoming the village fences, was heading towards the forest mass. I knew the girl by sight. She was c. 14‐16 years old. She had lived with her family in the town of Rokytne. That day, she was heading to her relatives, who — as it later turned out — had taken shelter in specially built huts on the opposite edge of the forest mass. The silhouette of the girl was spotted by our neighbor [a Ukrainian policeman with Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei] by the bright color of her dress and without hesitation started shooting at her. The first shots, due to the distance, did not cause any significant damage to the fleeing girl. The Jewish girl began to run towards the forest mass. Our nationalist, still shooting, started running towards the forest, trying to cut off the girl's escape route. In the forest, the girl had minimal chance of escaping or hiding in the bushes, because of the revealing color of her dress”.

Fleeing Jews also appeared at his rectory. Already in 11.1941, despite the threat to their lives — in the Germ. Reichskommissariat Ukraine, the Germans did not, it seems, issue an act threatening death to people helping Jews and their families, as happened in the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Government), but in many places the local German authorities de facto issued such warnings in the Germ. Bekanntmachung (Eng. announcement). Hired a young Jew as an organist. Was also said to be hiding other Jews. And in 08.1942, after the Germ. Aktion (Eng. operation) in Rokytne and the liquidation of the local ghetto, two escaping Jewish boys, 17‐year‐old Samuel and 10‐year‐old Alexander Levin, arrived at his rectory. They were taken in by him and a Polish teacher from Okop, Felicity Masojada, and then hidden in the forest and fed. One of them, Alexander Levin, many years later, was made certain the he, along with Felicity Masojada, was posthumously honored by the Institute of Remembrance of Martyrs and Heroes Yad Vashem in Jerusalem with the title „Righteous Among the Nations”.

The liquidation of the Polish–Russian border in 1939 had another unexpected effect. Catholics, mainly Poles, began to arrive in Okop, who in Soviet Russia had had no contact with Roman Catholic priests for c. 20 years. According to the source: „They came in great numbers for Midnight Mass in 1941. Many of them were seeing a priest and such a solemn service for the first time. At the invitation of Poles who had arrived from eastern Podolya, Father Louis went to visit them in the spring of 1942. He reached Zhytomyr [c. 180 km to the southeast] and as far as Kiev. The balance of his single two‐month missionary expedition was several thousand baptized, provision for 500 sick people, and c. 600 conversions”.

Half a year after the liquidation of the Rokytne ghetto, in 02.1943 Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. 201st Protection team Battalion) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — issued an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.

It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei to desert and join the UPA ranks. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

The tactics of the genocidal Ukrainians were detailed in an order issued by the UPA commander in Volyn — from 11.1943 commander of the Operational Group „UPA‐North” — Dmytro Klachkivsky, nom de guerre „Klym Savur”, from 06.1943. Anticipating Germany's defeat in the war with Russia, explained and ordered: „We should carry out a major operation to eliminate the Polish element. When the German troops withdraw, we should use this opportune moment to eliminate the entire male population aged 16 to 60 […] We cannot lose this fight, and we must weaken Polish forces at all costs. Forest villages and villages located near forest massifs should disappear from the face of the earth”.

Volyn was drenched in Polish blood. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by the Ukrainians — with German passivity — in an extremely barbaric manner. Hundreds of villages were burned.

Modern historians assume that the «Genocidium Atrox» began in the Germ. Kreisgebiet Sarny, at its western end, c. 30 km west of Sarny, while his parish was located c. 50 km east of that town. There, in the village of Parośla I, the genocidal OUN/UPA committed the first massacre of Poles, on 09.02.1943 murdering 155‐173 of them. From that moment on, the wave of murders began to rise and spread, and its culmination in Volyn was 11.07.1943, when the OUN/UPA — mainly in the eastern counties of the Germ. Generalbezirk Wolhynien–Podolien — attacked c. 99 Polish villages. Other sources state that „from the evening of 11th July 1943, until the morning of 12.07”, the OUN/UPA attacked in 167 places. In total, in 07.1943, the OUN/UPA genocidally attacked c. 520 Polish villages and colonies, barbarously murdering 10,000‐20,000 Poles.

For most of 1943, however, mass murders bypassed the Rokytne area. There were two reasons. Firstly, the greatest influence among Ukrainians in the area was held by the aforementioned Taras Borovets, nom de guerre „Taras Bulba”. After going underground in 01.1942, „Taras Bulba” created the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, i.e. UPA, which — striving for Ukrainian independence — initially focused mainly on attacking Russian partisan groups. Later, Polish groups occasionally were targeted as well due to the ambivalent attitude of Poles towards Russians, caused by the Sikorski–Mayski Agreement — i.e. between the Polish government in the West and the Russian authorities, in which the Polish government recognized the Russians as „an ally of our allies” — and the repressive German policy. The acts of German repression against villages that supported and helped Russian partisans later made „Taras Bulba” also turn against the Germans, although he maintained contacts with them. According to sources, he opposed the use of „collective responsibility” by any side of the conflict, including Poles, whom he considered part of the citizens of the future Ukrainian state. This brought him into conflict with the Ukrainian OUN, which chose genocidal terror against the Polish population as a method of fighting for an „independent Ukraine”. The conflict deepened after the OUN de facto appropriated the name UPA for its partisan armed force at the end of 1942. Secondly, a large detachment of Russian partisans appeared in the vicinity of his parish, under the command of Captain Ivan Shitov, who on 14.10.1943 adopted the name of the Ternopil Partisan Group named after N. Khrushchev. This unit e.g. in 05.1943 attacked Rokytne, destroying the station on the strategic Sarny‐Kiev railway line, blowing up the local power plant and glass factory, and destroying the railway bridge over the Rokytnyanka River.

However, in the vicinity of Rokytne and his parish, a whole series of attacks on individual Poles took place, in many cases attributed to UPA‐„Bulba” units, although prob. were carried out by members of the genocidal OUN/UPA, or by Ukrainians from the „Taras Bulba” units sympathizing with them. And so, in the above‐mentioned Netreba, on 16‐28.02.1943, „The owner of the estate, Czeszejko‐Sochacki, was playing cards with two Ukrainian friends. After the game was over, the Ukrainians stood up and said that the time had come when they would have to murder him. Czeszejko‐Sochacki took it as a joke and laughed, while the guests began the "work". They murdered Czeszejko‐Sochacki, his wife (both 50‐60 years old), and their 15‐year‐old son. The 12‐year‐old son, who had hidden under the stove, survived”.

Even though „Taras Bulba” himself claimed that „Ukraine has more dangerous enemies than Poles […] The Polish nation exists anyway, and as long as it is in the same captivity as we are, as a result of circumstances it will be not our enemy, but our ally”, his people became increasingly radicalized, and in 06.1943 the genocidal OUN/UPA decided to take over the UPA‐„Bulba” units by force. On 19.08.1943, they attacked their headquarters and took Taras Borovets" wife prisoner, only to murder her on 11.11.1943. The Germans also helped by arresting „Taras Bulba” on 01.12.1943.

In 06.1943, however, the Ukrainians of his parish had not yet fallen into a collective frenzy, although then, „while returning from Rokytne to the village of Kysorychi, Ukrainian nationalists stopped [the aforementioned teacher, Felicite Masojada, who helped Jews in hiding], and having found out that she was Polish, hanged her on a tree and, after inflicting several stab wounds with knives, murdered her along with three other Poles]”. So on 24.06.1943, on the feast of St John the Baptist, „the faithful from the Russian areas beyond the Zbruch River came to his parish in great numbers, and pilgrims from all the surrounding parishes joined them. The ceremony in Okop included the confirmation of adults. Bishop Adolf Szelążek, due to his advanced age, was unable to come himself, but he appointed the dean of Sarny to confirm the faithful with seven priests assisting. The ceremony must have been exceptional, as six thousand people received the sacrament of confirmation, and over nine thousand faithful received Holy Communion”.

A few months later, the situation in his parish deteriorated drastically. Not only did the genocidal OUN/UPA begin to forcefully take over the UPA‐„Bulba” units, but Russian partisan units fighting the OUN/UPA, which rightly considered this gang to be German allies, moved several dozen kilometers east, attacking strategic, from the Russian point of view, given the inexorably westward‐moving German–Russian front, infrastructure installations there. Faced with the threat of the OUN/UPA, perhaps several dozen young Poles also joined the ranks of the Russian partisans. And in the resulting void, the OUN/UPA began implementing «Genocidium Atrox» in his parish.

From around 09.1943, the Polish inhabitants of the villages of his parish began to hide at night „in the nearby, huge forests and in wooded swamps and marshes. The population of the village of Okop hid mainly in the forests of "Khlebnyky", "Kubli" ("Khvlisiv") and "Jamcowa Niwa"”.

The OUN/UPA attack on his parish took place from Monday to Tuesday, 06‐07.12.1943. „The UPA and Ukrainian peasants murdered c. 60 Poles. The executioners cut open the victims" bellies, drove stakes into their stomachs attaching the bodies to the ground. They chopped them into pieces with axes, tore children apart. When the next day those who managed to escape in their underwear and save themselves came back from the forest, some suffered mental disorders at the sight of the mutilated bodies, and several people died of shock”. Three villages were attacked: Budki Borowskie, Okop, and Dołhań, and among the victims was also a Ukrainian nationalist, a certain Chorny. „Chorny’s wife, Elena, was killed by a rifle shot, his eldest son was killed by an axe. A baby several months old, held in his mother’s arms, froze to death because the killers left the door wide open when they left”. „Mainly women were engaged in looting, men in murder, and children and teenagers in setting fire to the farmyards”.

His co‐friars of the Oblates OMI congregation described the events as follows: „On the evening of December 6, 1943, Father Wrodarczyk was writing sheet music for the church choir for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and later, together with Brother Charles Dziemba OMI and a hundred‐year‐old woman who helped with work in the rectory, he recited the Litany of Loreto. As if anticipating what was soon to come, he said goodbye to his congregation's brother, and as he was leaving for church, he said: «Stay with God, Brother, and love the Blessed Mother. Let us rely on God's will. I will go to church; I cannot leave the Blessed Sacrament».

[…] At 10 p.m.

[…] the UPA broke into the church in Okop. They met the parish priest on the steps of the altar and from the very first moment they began to abuse him.

In front of the church door were bundles of straw, which they wanted to set on fire to burn he church. The imploring pleas of Father Wrodarczyk dissuaded the Bandera followers from their evil intentions, and the church was saved. They loaded vestments and liturgical objects, such as a monstrance and chalices, onto a wagon waiting in front of the church and drove it towards Karpylivka.

Father Wrodarczyk, bound and tied to a sleigh, was also dragged to Karpylivka, 7 kilometers away, where the UPA gang's headquarters was located. Traces of beatings and abuse remained in the snow‐drops of blood”.

Another source adds: „They captured him from in front of the church altar, killing an 18‐year‐old girl, Veronica Kozińska, and a 90‐year‐old woman, Lucy Skurzyńska, before his eyes”.

One witness described his fate as follows: „After the priest was taken by car from Karpylivka to the Palky forest, located near the narrow‐gauge railway on the Rokytne–Mochulanka line, he was stripped naked and subjected to inhuman tortures. Stabbing with bayonets and needles, and burning his aching legs with red‐hot irons did not produce the desired effect. The priest was still alive.

The enraged torturers began more brutal tortures.

Seeing his certain death, the martyr asked his torturers for permission to say a prayer. They granted it generously. Kneeling on the moss, the priest prayed for a long time.

After finishing, he said: «I am ready».

Twelve Ukrainian girls dressed in red skirts laid the priest on the ground and tied him to a lying log.

Then, in cold blood, they began sawing his body.

Cut in half, still giving signs of life, they put him on his feet and tied him to a growing tree, only to open rifle fire on him from a distance of a dozen or so meters”.

Bp Vincent Urban, auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Wrocław, wrote: „They stripped the priest naked, placed a crown of barbed wire on his head, and, beaten until he fainted, crucified him upside down on an oak tree”.

According to yet another account, „one of the executioners hacked open his chest with an axe and took out his heart”.

Next, „after digging a hole and throwing the body into it, the criminals covered their victim's head with a dirty sack of chaff. They placed turf and a few broken branches on the grave, which was covered with sand”. Was to be „initially buried in the farmyard of a Ukrainian named Brychka, but when the front approached, his remains, fearing reprisals, were moved to a marshy meadow”. „In the 1950s, these vast marshy areas were drained. Now wheat grows there”. Searches for the bodies after 1990 were unsuccessful.

On 24.12.1943, the large‐scale Russian Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began. On c. 06.01.1943, the advancing Russians crossed the pre‐war Polish border and entered Rokytne and the surrounding area. The Russian occupation began.

And on 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. In 12.2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in a resolution, recognized génocidaire Dmitry Klachkivsky as „the leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Volyn and a participant in the struggle for Ukraine's independence in the 20th century”. In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, the schools were named after them.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”