Holy Father Blesses Ukrainian Catholic University

During his visit to Ukraine, Pope John Paul II took several steps to foster the new Ukrainian Catholic University based on the Lviv Theological Academy. On June 26, 2001, he blessed the new university campus and its staff. The following day he beatified seven of the Academy's former faculty and students and joined His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar in blessing the university's cornerstone.

On his way to the youth rally Tuesday afternoon, the Pope was greeted by over three hundred faculty members, students and staff of the Lviv Theological Academy at the site of the new University on Striyska Street. Fr. Borys Gudziak, Rector of the Lviv Theological Academy, greeted the Holy Father and asked His Holiness to bless the new university and all its members. Using a megaphone, the Pope gave a blessing in Latin and then generously sprinkled the singing crowd with holy water.

The Holy Father received flowers from an alumna and a special gift from the Institute of Church History's museum: a small case used as a portable alter with a chalice and paten used to celebrate Liturgies during the underground period of the Catholic Churches. The Pope then continued on for a blessing at the site of the future Holy Spirit Seminary and the university's theological faculty.

The new Ukrainian Catholic University which the Pope blessed is a sign of the new independent Ukraine. The enormous main building was started in Soviet times as a Communist Party complex but never completed. As the Soviet legacy left education in Ukraine corrupted and backward, the Ukrainian Catholic University is an effort to reform and advance higher education in Ukraine.

Before the Soviets closed it, the Lviv Theological Academy was a training-ground to educate seminarians destined for the priesthood. Post-soviet Ukraine has different needs, so lay men and women now study theology along with seminarians and male and female religious. The new Ukrainian Catholic University begins a history faculty this year and will soon add social sciences.

The university's Grand Chancellor, Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, notes: "Priests and lay people alike will prepare to become better scholars and 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 the opportunity to nurture those talents which the Lord God has given to our people."

Seven of the new Greek Catholic martyrs beatified on Wednesday by the Pope were directly involved with the Theological Academy and Holy Spirit Seminary during their lifetime. According to the Academy's Rector, Fr. Borys Gudziak, "Today they are considered the special heavenly patrons of the new university." Among them were such distinguished figures as Bishop Mykola Charnetsky, a professor at the Theological Academy. Professor Fathers Andriy Ishchak and Mykola Konrad were murdered on June 26, 1941 as the Bolshevik army was arriving. Fathers Roman Lysko and Oleksiy Zarytskyi were graduates of the Academy: the first was tortured to death in Lviv's "Lonskiy Street" prison and the second died after 15 years in exile in a camp in Karaganda, Kazakstan. Father Klymentiy Sheptytsky was the spiritual director of the Academy and died in a prison in Volodymyr, Russia.

At the end of the Byzantine rite Liturgy on Wednesday, the Pope and Cardinal Husar, respectively heads of the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic Churches worldwide, consecrated the cornerstones of the Ukrainian Catholic University and the Holy Spirit Seminary.

Religious Information Service of Ukraine
26. juni 2001