During a meeting with graduate students in the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) master’s program in journalism, Archbishop Lubomyr (Husar) discussed the threat of secularism, the consumerist mindset of Ukrainians, and problems with the church’s involvement in politics in the context of globalization of modern Ukraine. His reflections were recorded by a student of the program, Iryna Naumets.
During a meeting with graduate students in the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) master’s program in journalism, Archbishop Lubomyr (Husar) discussed the threat of secularism, the consumerist mindset of Ukrainians, and problems with the church’s involvement in politics in the context of globalization of modern Ukraine. His reflections were recorded by a student of the program, Iryna Naumets.
The question of why people are desperate can be answered in two ways. First, those who have a decisive voice in society don’t try and even cannot convey to people the truth about reality. They don’t try because they are afraid. What is happening does not always correspond to the truth. People do not understand because no one explains to them what is happening. Either they lie or tell the truth in an incomprehensible form. If people knew the truth, there would not be so many oppressed people.
Second, even when uninformed, not all try to search for the truth. Without making an effort to learn everything, an oppressed people suffers as expected. Lack of information creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and mistrust.
They say that people have the government it deserves. It does not sound very nice. This claim, however, is not entirely false. When we say that people deserve such a government, it means that they are not trying to get something better. So when we say that a student deserves a low grade, we realize that he does not study sufficiently. Consequently, he gets what deserves. People must take action to remedy the situation.
Consider how much we try to make our government at various levels be a good authority. If we do not try, we have what we have, and we will not have anything else. Without effort on the part of all people, we should not expect change. The people should realize that they are responsibility for making sure they have normal lives. If one feels that the government is not fulfilling its mandate and does not care about the common good, then it should be changed. This is a normal democratic process.
The government is not automatically good. If it does not fulfill its obligations, then the society has not the right but the obligation to change it.
The task of the church is not to protect people from an unjust government. The church has the task of talking about responsibility – about the responsibility of the government before the people and the responsibility of each of us to be good citizens. The church is not an institution, which should be involved in politics. But it should teach those in power and those outside it responsibility and how to ensure that political and social life is at the appropriate level. The church is the preaching of the Word of God, not the preaching of a political ad.
Priests who lobby in churches should be punished, and we have heard of such cases. A priest who takes gifts and uses the pulpit as spread political propaganda does not fulfill his job, but hurts the people. The church should educate politicians, especially by reminding them of their task to serve the people – not to rule over them, but to serve.
The second thing is that this service will be effective when it becomes fair. The church cooperates with politicians only in the sense of participation in joint projects intended for the common good, not in the sense of supporting a candidate. If a candidate went to church and was a good parishioner, even without words from the priest all would see him as a good man who appreciates God.
In the whole world there is the problem of the decline of spirituality. This should not be overgeneralized, but one cannot deny that consumer values have become important in people’s lives. There is a reason for this. We are the heirs of the last century. Two world wars, horrible long dictatorships – Bolshevik and Nazi. Last century we were passionate about technical progress. Everybody was enthusiastic about progress, but it gave us not only nuclear energy, but also the atomic bomb. Then came frustration. You can do a lot of good, but at the same time get lost and go in the wrong direction. I do not say that in the 20th century everything was bad. I mention only that the conscience of the people was seriously shaken. There were attempts to expel God and create a new Soviet man, and so forth. In short, this wounded the soul, and we still have not entirely recovered from it.
After World War II in North and South America and Western Europe the possibility to consume appeared. Everyone began to admire consumerism. We can allow ourselves all that we want. Consumerism weakened spiritual quality and made spiritual values unpopular. The negative effects of the last century predominate. Take, for example, the environment that we all are consciously destroying. We understand what the destruction can lead to, but few of us try to stop it. We are crying and complaining but not trying to do something. We do not have the right inner strength. And from history we know that God often allows some shocks so that people begin to act.
Secularism means to live in a world where there is no God. Unfortunately, Western Europe does not want to admit that it developed on Christian principles. If it did, then consequently it would have to accept those principles again. People are not willing to live by the principles, which require of them some sacrifices. Consumerism not only enabled us to rejoice in worldly goods but has also made us lazy and spiritually weak. We are too weak to resist against secular trends. Unfortunately, the whole world today feels the effects of globalization. This is one manifestation of the trends of secularism. Ultimate globalization is a denial of God, when hope is put only in the person and there is no hope in God.
The church is not always and not everywhere heard and does not have sufficient strength to speak to the people. This is a weakness of the church. We have a specific case in Western Europe, where the current Pope Benedict XVI is trying to talk to people about the things of God, but he does not always find support, even from inside the Catholic Church.
His predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, once spoke of the need to do the second evangelization, that is, to re-preach the Gospel. Just as the apostles dispersed throughout the world to preach, so today this should be done by us. The current Pope Benedict XVI tries to speak and be heard but does not always find support.
A good pastor will work hard, but will everyone listen to him, to do it? Instead of changing themselves, people begin to blacken the pastor.
People are leaving Ukraine because there is no work here. One hundred and twenty years ago our predecessors from Western Ukraine went to America because of poverty to look for better work. They worked hard, suffered, and had no possibilities to return. Most people remained abroad. It is very hard to come back, because there are many obstacles, especially when they're accustomed to life there.
Often life abroad is more normalized, profitable, and calm, but I will say honestly that although everywhere is good, at home is best. Being on native soil is a great gift from God. I lived forty years outside Ukraine and always felt like a second-class citizen.
In the past, people were more sensitive to leaving their homelands. There was death penalty, punishment of posthumous imprisonment, and exile – the prohibition to live in one’s homeland. Venerable punishment when people were sent into exile and not given the right to visit their homeland. Today, people can not imagine this, but conscious people know that being in a foreign land is disagreeable.
The idea of a national church is necessary because Jesus founded one church. We humans divided it with our sins. Currently, there are four branches of the Kyivan Church, which a thousand years ago was only one. It is our duty to ensure that there is one church. The first difficulty is the four branches of the church – the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate. If you ask four different people, each of them would talk about one church. There must be only one Christ's Church of Kyiv, which will not have denominational differences, only some local differences.
Serious people do not object to the idea of a national church, but it is not easy to introduce. What was divided for a thousand years cannot be united in a short time. To return to the original unity, we must work hard
During a meeting with graduate students in the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) master’s program in journalism, Archbishop Lubomyr (Husar) discussed the threat of secularism, the consumerist mindset of Ukrainians, and problems with the church’s involvement in politics in the context of globalization of modern Ukraine. His reflections were recorded by a student of the program, Iryna Naumets.