Boyko family continues tradition by supporting Ukrainian Catholic University (08/28/05)

Boyko family continues tradition by supporting Ukrainian Catholic University

by Matthew Matuszak

CHICAGO - Lieda, Olena and Bohdan Boyko are helping to build up the Michael and Irene Boyko Endowment for Eastern Christian Studies, which was first established by their father, the late Michael Boyko. The endowment will fund study, research and publications in Eastern Christian Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University, "and whatever else is needed," as Olena Boyko put it.

Michael Boyko, who died in February, was "a poor peasant boy who was able to obtain an education thanks to the benevolence of the rector of the Theological Academy, [at that time Father] Josyf Slipyj," said Olena Boyko.

Michael Boyko finished his studies in 1938, but the war interrupted his ordination. "But his days at the Theological Academy were the most memorable of his life. The seminarians he studied with remained his closest friends," explained his daughter Lieda.

The Boykos have kept their father's report cards, signed by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Father Josyf Slipyj. "We showed them to Father Borys Gudziak, the rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University. He noted that two of Tato's (father's) instructors have been beatified," noted Olena Boyko. Pope John Paul II beatified seven students and staff of the Lviv Theological Academy among the 27 new martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in June 2001.

The Lviv Theological Academy, originally known as the Greek-Catholic Theological Academy, was founded in 1928 and closed by the Soviets in 1944. It was revived in 1994 and inaugurated as the Ukrainian Catholic University in 2002.

Michael Boyko was "a firm believer that if someone helps you, you help someone else," explained Olena Boyko. "He had a lifelong quest for scholarship. He was one of the original founders of the Patriarchal Society in New Haven, Conn., and he taught his children the love for our Ukrainian Church."

"He always kept up with what's going on in the Church," added Lieda Boyko.

"Michael Boyko gave the seed money for the endowment," explained John F. Kurey, president of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation. "He started in 1997 and added to it during his life. The family is committed to building upon the foundation that he laid." More than $77,000 has been donated toward the endowment.

Michael Boyko was a dedicated alumnus of the Lviv Theological Academy. His daughters add that he was buried with a Lviv Theological Academy t-shirt on - "He loved it very much," said Olena Boyko - and a medal from the institution.

"There are other children like us, whose fathers matriculated from the Theological Academy," added Lieda Boyko. "We would encourage them to honor their fathers in a similar way, with an endowment for the Ukrainian Catholic University, through the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation."

Other alumni of the Theological Academy, like the late Rt. Rev. Mitred Archpriest Jaroslav Swyschuk MSSA, who last served at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Chicago, have also been supporters of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation.

The Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation is compiling a database of graduates and other former students of the pre-war Lviv Theological Academy. Alumni of the Greek-Catholic Theological Academy in Lviv, or children or relatives of living or deceased alumni are asked to provide information by contacting the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation at 2247 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL, 60622; phone, (773) 235-8462; e-mail; [email protected]. The phone number of the UCEF in Canada is (416) 239-2495.

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