Statement of the Ukrainian Catholic University
Dear UCU Community! Dear Fellow Citizens!
The dictator has been deposed. The madness of the government has ceased. With God’s help, the worst-case scenario of a total loss of independence has been avoided. Something has been achieved of which some of us had begun to despair.
Only a week ago this announcement would have called forth from us tumultuous joy. But today this evident joy is darkened by the pain of the losses suffered and uncertainty about the future.
The image of the “heavenly hundred” is drilled into the conscience of the millions who remain on earth: who will bear responsibility for the new national tragedy? Official investigations are not enough – a national, if not an international, tribunal is necessary. Not only to emphasize what has passed but in order to make impossible the repetition of these horrors in the future.
And prayer is still needed so that the wounds will heal as soon as possible and peace will return to human souls. The most important balm for this is the establishment of truth and the renewal of justice. This will open human hearts to the voice of God.
We are grateful that the current members of parliament have brought about the scenario to legally exit this crisis. However, the country needs a total restructuring which, above all, a new political elite can undertake. They must grow and today’s leaders must fade.
The legitimacy of all structures of power, without exception, should be approved by elections on the basis of an improved Constitution. At the basis of the activities of all structures of the government and the functioning of all spheres of social life, in particular education, values should be placed for which the Maidan fought and for which its heroes gave their lives.
Ukraine has confirmed that it belongs to European civilization. So the signing of an agreement regarding association with the EU will not be a pledge for the future but the confirmation of an accomplished fact.
However, the “Europeanness” of Ukraine does not lie in the cut of our clothing but the manner of our thinking and the style of our action. As Vasyl Hatsko, director of the Democratic Alliance, correctly said recently: “Don’t have any expectations for others. Set the task before YOURSELF.” From now on, you and I must be the guarantors of the Constitution.
We must with dignity bury and honor the fallen, pray for the repose of their souls, share the pain of their families, care for the wounded and the orphans – this is our Christian obligation before the heroes of the Maidan, in particular before an innocent victim from our community, Bohdan Solchanyk. Our civic obligation before them is to rebuild Ukraine, where never again will the need for such a bloody sacrifice arise.
We are sincerely grateful to all the activists of the Ukrainian Catholic University – students and teachers, priests and theologians, the rectorate and the Senate, the women of UCU and the ordinary workers – for the great gift of a team united in working toward achieving a single goal. We deeply bow to the friends of UCU and UCU’s benefactors for all-around material and spiritual support.
And now, dear ones, to work! The main obstructions in our way have been cleared, with God’s help. Let us now “make straight” the road to the Lord in government administration and the life of society, in professional work and the achievements of education. We will be the carriers of the values from which a new Ukraine will arise!
Rector’s Office