Head of UGCC: We need statesmen of great caliber

In an interview to Dzerkalo Tyznia (Weekly Mirror), published on February 12, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) Patriarch Lubomyr Husar said that "we need statesmen of great caliber." He was responding to the comment: "We are told that we are a little late in our self-realization, approximately 100 years late, that the current tendencies in the world are completely different and that one has to think of oneself as part of something bigger than the nation." According to the patriarch, if we had an experienced leadership, experienced statesmen, then we would be able to advance much faster.

"We had and still have narrow-minded people in power. Lina Kostenko has recently written a book 'Notes of a Ukrainian Madman' and presented it in cities across Ukraine. You know, it is a pity that she did not do it twenty years ago. We need such people as Lina Kostenko, people who have a vision — not the narrow-minded politicians who only have interests. We need statesmen of a great caliber. Take Germany for example: Why did it rise so quickly after the tragedy of Hitlerism? Thanks to Adenauer and Erhard. One had a great vision of Germany and the other was a very serious economist. And they put Germany back on the map of Europe. And in a very short time," said the head of the UGCC.

"From the end of the 18th century — from when the Zaporizhzhian Host and the Kyivan Monastery were destroyed — we have been in bondage. Everyone who invaded us destroyed the brain of our nation; therefore, I am saying that our return today should not be considered very slow. For we have no elite; it was destroyed, starting with the so-called kulaks. What happened to the literary renaissance of the 20s? Khvyliovyi, Zerov — everyone was destroyed. In the 30s, rural areas were destroyed. What did it mean to destroy the kulaks? To destroy the influence in the villages. The entire intelligentsia was destroyed; therefore, it is to no surprise that we have no elite. The elite is not simply formed in schools where people learn to read, write, think a little and gain higher education diplomas. This is not the elite yet. The elite is the intelligentsia that thinks not only intellectually but also with its heart."  

According to culture.unian.net, Patriarch Lubomyr calls Lina Kostenko an example of a true Ukrainian intellectual: "I will return to Lina Kostenko again. She is an example of the elite, the true spiritual elite. People like her were constantly destroyed. You know, it often appears that we should be glad that we are still standing after the times when every conscious person was destroyed. We must understand that the intelligentsia is not like a mushroom that grows after a rain. Can you name at least one great politician in Ukraine who thinks in state terms? There is no such person. Not because we are some fools. We just have not had time to educate one," stated the head of the UGCC.