Borys GUDZIAK: Looking for a modern-day Prince of Ostroh
Last Saturday, on October 30, the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) held its third fundraising dinner and a silent auction aimed at supporting its educational programs, projects, and activities. In an exclusive interview with The Day, Rev. Dr. Borys GUDZIAK, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, spoke about his educational institution, students, alumni and professors, spiritual priorities, the revival of freedom, as well as the traditions of patronage and communication in the milieu of high culture.
The traditions of patronage in Ukrainian education took root in the era of Prince Ostrozky. What do you think of the culture of charity in today’s Ukraine?
“It is on the rise. Human freedom had been degenerating for decades, when the system formed an overall dependence of man on the state. At the same time, the feeling of responsibility is also reviving via education and travels abroad. And Ukrainians become more and more aware that where there is a strong civic society, a strong democracy, a strong economy and a faster rate of technological and educational development. It is for this reason that we have an increasing number of all kinds of patrons. UCU is a tiny cell of a civic society, as it receives no support from the state and, incidentally, the church. The support of the UCU by the local church accounts for about one percent of what is needed. This is why our patrons and sponsors are actually becoming co-creators of this structure and guarantors of our university’s work quality and freedom.”
Who are your chief sponsors?
“We so far have a large number of international sponsors. A foundation was established in the US to support UCU, with 60 percent of the donors being non-Ukrainian. Each year we write requests for hundreds of grants to various — mostly international — foundations in order to sponsor a book or a series of lectures. Some foundations are helping strengthen UCU logistics. So, by contrast with the times of Prince Ostrozky, who supported the Ostroh Academy on his own in the 16th century, our university has a lot of sponsors. We are also looking for a modern-day Prince of Ostroh who could donate enough to allow UCU to achieve breakthrough growth (Laughs). For this reason, we are arranging a charitable party in Kyiv, as our state’s main financial resources are concentrated there.”
Whenever I visit your university, I can feel a special, very good, friendly and warm atmosphere. I will even dare say that no other university has this kind of aura.
“We have the same problems as anybody else has. We do not wear aureoles, nor are we canonized saints… Spiritual priorities must play an important role. Those who apply to the UCU are not required to produce any denominational passport. We even have students who are still in search of their religious identity. But, from the very outset, UCU made as its ideological cornerstone the example of the confessors and martyrs who very recently struggled for human dignity and freedom in the Soviet system. And we translate this search and the priority of human dignity into many concrete things, such as readiness of our community for prayer, the beauty of a liturgy, the necessity of saying ‘Thank you’ and ‘I am sorry.’ And this determines many things. I say to my students during the inauguration, as I would say 10 years ago: ‘I hope each of you will manage to use and live by the following two expressions and reflexes: thank you and I am sorry.’ I think this approach really influences the UCU atmosphere. Besides, we have very many faculty members who have made great sacrifices: knowing four or five languages and having been awarded a doctorate abroad, they came back to Ukraine and are working here for a very modest compensation. They are capable of carving various careers, and if they went, say, into business, they would be earning five times as much as they do at the university in Lviv and 10 times as much in Kyiv. But they want to stay with us, and their sacrifice has a positive effect on my colleagues and students. This noble attitude is a source of inspiration for me.”
Do you keep track of how your graduates fare in the Ukrainian society, which is imperfect both economically and morally?
“It is too early to jump to any sociological conclusions because the first graduates left the universities in 1999. Besides, our largest program was remained unaccredited until 2006. Therefore, our first 300 graduates received an unaccredited diploma. But they did have knowledge and many of them used to say: ‘Your Reverence, let us not try to get accredited if this accreditation may hinder the university’s curriculum or style.’ Now, thank God, all the full-time courses, including theology, have been accredited and licensed. Out of our first 700 graduates, more than 200 are priests who studied in an open atmosphere. They do not scare people: on the contrary, they help their flock see the broad horizons and exalted goals, they speak freely with educated people and lay societal leaders and thus cooperate with their parishes. Theology diplomas have been awarded to women for the first time in the history of Ukrainian Christianity, and they begin to change the church, at least the Greek Catholic one. Professional female theologians are a very interesting phenomenon that is already bearing fruit. Our first specialists majored in liberal arts, such as theology and history, and now we also have social pedagogy. The students had a good command of languages and know how to think critically. A large number of graduates went on to be researchers, and some switched to politics, business, and journalism. The journalist is a thinking person who must be able to speak about various topics, properly formulate questions, be communicative, and write well. The vast majority of our students can communicate quite well, so the city and oblast administrations and all kinds of enterprises willingly employ them. Some of our theologians have launched their own businesses. Therefore, from the very outset, our university was trying to produce well-educated people — not just narrow specialists with a certain title but people who know what a human being is, what life is, and what a problem is. They seek to resolve contemporary issues and problems on the basis of faith and moral principles.”
Did all the priests who received education at your university stay in Ukraine?
“Some are already serving in the diaspora. I was in Australia last summer, and the Ukrainian bishop, Rev. Petro Stetsiuk, told me he is very satisfied with Rev. Nahirniak who is in charge of the Ukrainian youth in Australia. At our university, he helped us conduct an English-language summer school for several years and learned to work with young people. He came to Australia six months ago with a feeling of dignity, as a young, dynamic, openhearted, smiling, and creative personality. Wherever our graduate priests are, they are adequately fulfilling the tasks set by the local community.”
It was reported recently that the SBU head Valerii Khoroshkovsky had approved your proposal that an agreement be concluded on a freer access of UCU students and faculty to SBU archival materials. Do you think it was just for show, an empty gesture? Or was it a demonstration of friendship after the case of an SBU operative visiting you?
“As this issue not only concerns the UCU but also raises some important moral and social problems, our university responded with an open address to the academic community, in which we expressed gratitude for readiness to press ahead with opening of the archives. But we put forward our request in October 2009 — under different circumstances, when archives were being opened. Meanwhile, archives are now being closed and some people, such as Ruslan Zabily, director of Lontsky Prison, a museum and memorial to the victims of occupation regimes, are being subjected to repressions. We are ready to conduct a debate on this subject provided there is a policy of openness for all. The Ukrainian Catholic University is not seeking exclusive privileges. We want to be the voice of a free Ukrainian researcher who must have the right of access to archives, no matter whether or not he works at the UCU. I do not think somebody should be interested in any gestures calculated for effect — it is about organic research that can shed more light on our difficult past. We have so far received no answer to our proposals.”
You were one of the first to support the Donetsk University rector Volodymyr Shevchenko who was abruptly dismissed. Oxana Pachlovska wrote, in an article to The Day, that your reaction was an example of high culture — in sharp contrast to the impudent way the Donetsk and Odesa rectors were fired. But there was no response from the Ministry of Education to your letter and Pachlovska’s article. Do you think you were heard? And do they want to hear anybody at all?
“I think church confessors and martyrs of all times, including our recent past, have taught us as follows: our word should not depend on the likelihood of a result. In other words, we should behave in a way that our conscience prompts us, without thinking of whether it will immediately bear fruits. When our academic council has a weekly session, the chair on which you are now sitting is occupied by Myroslav Marynovych. He made a fundamental decision in a young age: to continue fighting for human dignity, freedom, and human rights. He was told that this had no prospects and that he would go down or even be murdered. His friends turned their backs on him, his neighbors refused to speak to him. In spite of this, he blindly believed in the truth and embarked on the path of a great sacrifice. I cannot imagine the Ukrainian Catholic University and our societal discourse today without Marynovych. It is people like Sverstiuk, Marynovych, Svitlychny, and Stus who gave us our freedom. This is the way church leaders, martyrs, and confessors of all nations were. This is why we, UCU, always ask ourselves this question: ‘What is the right, true, and creative word and what stand should we take?’ And let there be any consequences to this. In any case, we are trying not to provoke any aggravations in society. As I told Khoroshkovsky, we are not a revolutionary cell or organization. We work transparently. We work with disabled children, translate Plato, and are trying to educate good critical historians. But there are instances, when we cannot keep silent, seeing some social injustice or some irregularities in our common national life. In this case I hope we speak in a good, free and constructive spirit, without anger or malice in heart.”
P.S. As Olha Zarychynska, coordinator of the UCU’s third fundraising dinner, told The Day, the first event of this kind was successfully held two years ago, when 100,000 dollars were collected. Last year they managed to raise as much as 120,000 dollars.
In case some of The Day’s readers are willing to contribute we have included the UCU’s bank information below:
The Ukrainian Catholic University’s Bank Account
26000600196221
Ukrsotsbank, MFO 325019, Lviv
ZKPO 20850999
MFO 325019
