Pope John Paul II blesses new Ukrainian Catholic University (07/15/01)

Pope John Paul II blesses new Ukrainian Catholic University

LVIV - During his historic visit to Ukraine, Pope John Paul II on June 26 blessed the Lviv Theological Academy's new university on Striiska Street, as well as more than 300 of its faculty, staff and students according to the press service of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

Father Borys Gudziak, rector of the Lviv Theological Academy, greeted the pope and asked him to bless the university and its members. Speaking in Latin, the pope used a megaphone to bless the many spectators, then generously sprinkled the crowd with holy water.

After the blessing, the Lviv Theological Academy's Institute of Church History museum presented the holy father with a small case used as an altar with a chalice and paten used at liturgies during the underground period of the Catholic Church in Ukraine.

The following day, before millions of Greek-Catholics, the pope beatified 28 martyrs and servants of God, seven of whom were directly involved with the Theological Academy and Holy Spirit Seminary during their lifetimes. According to Father Gudziak, the recently beatified martyrs who were involved with the LTA have a great spiritual significance to the new university. Father Gudziak said he believes they should be "considered the [university's] special heavenly patrons."

Among the beatified who taught at the university were Bishop Mykola Charnetsky, along with Fathers Andrii Ischak and Mykola Konrad, who were both murdered on June 26, 1941, by the retreating Bolshevik Army and the NKVD, respectively. Fathers Roman Lysko, a graduate of the academy, was tortured to death in Lviv's Lonskyi Street prison, and Father Oleksii Zarytskyi, another graduate, died after 15 years of exile in a camp in Karaganda, Kazakstan. Archmandrite Klymentii Sheptytsky, the spiritual director of the academy, died in a prison in Vladimir, Russia.

Before the Soviets ordered it closed at the end of World War II, the Lviv Theological Academy trained only seminarians destined for the priesthood. Now, however, the academy's Catholic university has expanded its horizons, educating lay men and women, as well as seminarians. The university is adding a history faculty this year and plans to add social sciences in the near future.

UGCC spokesmen say the new university represents a huge step forward in the state of Ukrainian higher education. Its main building, a former Communist Party complex, is a symbol of Ukraine's effort to reform and advance higher education in the wake of the old Soviet education system.

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the university's grand chancellor and head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, noted: "Priests and laypeople alike will prepare to become better citizens at this university. This is a great matter for the Church, for the state and for all Ukrainian society. Becoming a hearth for Ukrainian learning, the Ukrainian Catholic University will give our people the opportunity to nurture those talents which God has given."

The cornerstone of the new Ukrainian Catholic University was blessed by Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Husar during the Byzantine-rite liturgy celebrated in Lviv on June 27.

| Home Page |