PUBLIC LECTURE: Christian Spirituality in a Post-Modern World

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Catholic Church, once the world’s largest underground Church, came from out of the catacombs. Viciously persecuted for a period of nearly half a century, one of the first initiatives of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, was to make the near century long dream of building the first Eastern Catholic University a reality. Built on the spiritual foundations of its predecessor, the L’viv Theological Academy, the Ukrainian Catholic University has in a short period of time established itself as not only the first Catholic University on post-Soviet soil, but also an academic institution of excellence and spiritual authenticity, applauded by the international press such as the Daily Telegraph of London, and The Economist, as potentially a significant player in European higher education.

With its astonishing growth and reputation, the Ukrainian Catholic University has also attracted for itself a stiff opposition from the ghosts of the old Soviet regime, who see in the Ukrainian Catholic University a threat to plans to rewind the political dynamic of far Eastern Europe. In this lecture, Fr. Borys Gudziak will speak not only about the work of the Ukrainian Catholic University in post-Soviet Ukraine, but on the broader theme of the place of Christian Spirituality in a post-Modern world.