Ukrainian Catholic University teaches religious about management (05/28/06)

Ukrainian Catholic University teaches religious about management

by Petro Didula and Matthew Matuszak

LVIV - The Institute of Non-Profit Management of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) offered a seminar on the fundamentals of management for religious of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Held at the UCU premises in Lviv on May 18-19, the seminar was taught by Charles Neubecker and Dr. Guy Camarata, two volunteers from the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation (UCEF) in the United States.

The idea of conducting such a seminar was proposed by Ihumen Venekyt (Aleksiychuk) of the Studite Lavra in Univ. The UCU's Institute of Non-Profit Management found two well-qualified specialists in the field of management: Dr. Camarata of Caltex Petroleum and Mr. Neubecker, a retired executive from Caltex and currently a director of the UCEF.

In April the Greater Dallas Association of the Knights of Columbus had honored Mr. Neubecker as "Person of the Year" in recognition of his "tremendous effort with the Ukrainian Catholic University and Education Foundation," as Grand Knight Will Alt of the Knights of Columbus Council, Santa Maria No. 6065, put it.

Participating in the seminar were 15 priests and brothers representing most of the men's religious communities of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church functioning in Ukraine, namely the Studites, Basilians, Redemptorists and Miles Jesu orders.

The goal of the seminar was to teach management concepts to the religious so that they can better fulfill their mission and carry out their plans. "I'm convinced that management concepts are universal," said Mr. Neubecker, "for those who have their own private business and for religious. The knowledge and practices that we shared with the monks will make their work more productive and thought-out."

"And, though we often gave examples from the worldly life that we know, I'm convinced that this knowledge will help the religious and their whole congregations to reach their spiritual goals," he noted. "I'm convinced that the brothers will be able to adapt this knowledge and these practices appropriately for the missions of their religious communities."

"After this conference," continued Mr. Neubecker, "I hope that my listeners feel more comfortable with various concepts associated with business, like budgeting, strategic planning, setting priorities, mapping development and so on ... The religious will be able to use the practices they have acquired here in the organization of the daily life of their congregations like developing programs for the poor, the homeless, those dependent on alcohol or narcotics, and so on."

The Rev. Ivan Maikovych, superior of the Basilian Monastery of the True Cross and director of St. Josaphat College, both in Buchach, said that a seminar of this kind was very productive. "I think that this seminar will help me prepare so that a larger number of youth will be able to enter our college and study there," he said.

"Today we have 126 young men studying. This is a great potential for the church and all of Ukrainian society. This seminar gave instrumental methods for the planning and analysis of activities ... I'm now pondering on how to increase the number of students of our college," he said. "The question that is acute today is how to provide total or partial tuition support for some of the students. With this in mind, we will develop other structures which would give us some income for these purposes and also to build halls for sports and other activities of the students of the college."

"This conference is very helpful for us, because it helps us to organize our life for the Lord better," said the Rev. Robert Nicoletti of Miles Jesu. "We're learning how best to use the resources and the time that we have. We're learning to serve God in a more responsible manner."

An early indicator of the success of the seminar is the fact that some of its participants signed up for other educational programs at the university after this, their first experience of study at the UCU.

Nuns are a common sight on the UCU campus, as they study at the university's bachelor's and licentiate degree in theology programs. They are joined by male religious at the Evening Theology School and extension classes of its Catechetical-Pedagogical Institute. This is in addition to the 200 young men studying at Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv, including eparchial and religious order seminarians, who are taught by professors of the UCU.

Further information about the UCU in English and Ukrainian is available on the university's website at www.ucu.edu.ua. Readers may also contact the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60622; phone, 773-235-8462; e-mail, ucef@ucef.org; website, www.ucef.org. The phone number of the UCEF in Canada is 416-239-2495.

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