Ukrainian Catholic University launches its bureau in Kyiv (12/24/06)

Ukrainian Catholic University launches its bureau in Kyiv

by Olena Labunka
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - The Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) has launched a Kyiv bureau to handle public relations, academic affairs and fund-raising, among other functions.

Kyiv Bishop Dionizii Liakhovych blessed the UCU Kyiv bureau during a November 29 service attended by local clergy, UCU officials, staff and supporters.

Following the August 2005 transfer of the Ukrainian Catholic Church's headquarters from Lviv to Kyiv, UCU made the strategic decision to establish a Kyiv office, said Taras Dobko, UCU's vice-rector for academic affairs.

"His Beatitude is in Kyiv," said Mr. Dobko, referring to Archbishop Lubomyr Husar. "At the September blessing of new philosophy-theological department building, he said the university is for the entire Church. That would be hard to comprehend not only generally, but within the university itself, without a presence in Kyiv."

Among the bureau's functions will be disseminating information about UCU's activity, working with the mass media, establishing contacts with international organizations and the diplomatic community, strengthening contacts with higher educational institutions and appropriate government institutions, as well as coordinating and establishing UCU's educational programs in Kyiv, he said.

"Gradually, we will achieve more and more authority in the academic environment," Mr. Dobko said. "We want to use that authority for God's glory and the good of our Church."

The Kyiv bureau will also coordinate fund-raising in Ukraine's capital on behalf of the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation.

UCU's main academic goal at the moment is to lobby Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences to recognize theology as an academic subject that qualifies for the nation's highest degrees: candidate of science and doctor of science, Mr. Dobko said.

Currently, Ukrainian theology students cannot earn government recognition for earning these academic degrees, he said. Earlier this year, UCU succeeded in obtaining recognition from Ukraine's Ministry of Education for its bachelor's and master's degrees in theology, he added.

"We need to put forth difficult questions to Ukraine's Ministry of Education, such as when will the necessary reforms finally occur, when imitations of such reforms will end and when universities will breathe with full lungs academic freedom and honesty," Mr. Dobko said.

The official inauguration of UCU's Kyiv bureau is scheduled for May.

UCU Director of Information and External Affairs Natalia Klymovska will direct the UCU Kyiv bureau.

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