Theological Academy dedicates new premises in Lviv (10/20/96)

Theological Academy dedicates new premises in Lviv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

LVIV - With the pronouncement "Vivat academia, vivant professores," and the students' response of "Gaudeamus igitur," the Lviv Theological Academy inaugurated the third year of classes of the revived institution founded by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in 1928.

Just as important, it marked the opening of instruction at the new premises of the academy.

On October 10, immediately after the closing of the Sobor of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and during the week of celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest (Berestia), the head of the Church, Major Archbishop and Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, one of the oldest surviving graduates of the academy, and 15 other bishops anointed the walls of the spacious (15,000 square feet) but dilapidated structure.

Lviv Mayor Vasyl Kuibida was responsible for the enactment of a decision of the Lviv City Council to offer the former Russian-language school building to the academy after a three-year period during which it was closed and structural faults were corrected. The academy has undertaken the task of completing a major refurbishment project. The building had been used by Lviv State University after the Soviet regime closed the academy in 1945. For the last three years classes of the academy were held in a cramped 4,000-square-foot former nursery school.

Currently, 279 full-time students, seminarians, monks, nuns and laity, attend the institution, which is open to everyone, paying on average $200 per year per student for an education that costs the academy about $2,000 annually - costs that are covered by charitable donations.

The overflow crowd that attended the opening, MC'd by Borys Gudziak, professor of the Institute of Church History and a staff member at the academy, heard an address by Rector Mykhailo Dymyd and greetings from Bishops Sophron Mudry and Ivan Khoma, the Rev. Dr. Andriy Chirovsky of the Sheptytsky Institute (Ottawa), Prof. Mykhailo Holubets and Bohdan Stelmach of the Lviv City Council.

Bishop Lubomyr Husar of the Kyiv-Vyshhorod Eparchy reflected on the importance of the academy's mission in Ukraine's spiritual, cultural and political revival. Also present were representatives of diverse academic, educational, cultural and religious institutions.

Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, who met with the faculty and the students of the Lviv Theological Academy on Saturday and was in attendance at the blessing of the building, said: "Your Church can be proud that it has such an institution. I am grateful to those that have undertaken the task of rebuilding Ukraine's intellectual life under such difficult circumstances."

The first graduating class is scheduled for 1999. The university is awaiting accreditation by the Oriental Institute in Rome.

The Lviv Theological Academy foresees many difficult financial times ahead and, therefore, has established a foundation to offset the costs of theological studies for students and for organizational upkeep. It is attempting to establish a fund of $10 million within the next five years to secure the academy's existence.

For more information contact the academy's director of development, Prof. Jeffrey Wills, Classics Department, Van Hise Hall 910, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706; or the Rev. Ivan Krotec, 2245 W. Superior St., Chicago, IL 60612.