The Ukrainian Catholic University’s rector reflects on teaching students to help other people in need.
The Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Dr Taras Dobko, is relatively new to the job – he was appointed at the beginning of July – and couldn’t have begun it in more challenging times: first Covid, then war. “We are fortunate that the university is in the west of the country, so it is removed from the worst of the conflict in the east,” he said. The student body, now 2,300 strong, actually grew before and during the war; about a third of the undergraduate body and over half of graduates are from the country beyond Lviv where it is based, including the capital, Kyiv, and eastern parts of the country. From being a regional university it is now national in scope. And as soon as humanly possible after Covid, classes resumed in person because, as Dr Dobko says, it’s not possible to express solidarity with others on Zoom. There’s a large shelter at the university in case of missile attacks; students may well be safer there than at home.
He is tall, kind and fluent and talks freely about the faith; his English is very good. How is a Catholic ethos expressed in a university, especially during a war? The most obvious expression of Catholicity is that the theological faculty at the university has an ecclesiastical faculty, with its diplomas issued in the name of the Pope – though interestingly, the most popular subject with students is IT. But more important is its ethos of witness, service and communication.
“It’s actually a help to us that the Catholic Church in Ukraine isn’t associated with the state,” he says. “Catholics make up just under 10 per cent of the population, with the majority being Orthodox, but in Ukraine the Church is part of the people, part of civil society. It has no privileges. It gives us a bridge to the marginal-ised.” And right in the centre of the university there are people with mental disabilities, who might seem to be tangential to the character of a university. “A university celebrates reason and those with learning disabilities cannot use their reason fully, but they ask the most important question of all – “Do you love me?” he says. “They are professors of human relations. We teach our students that human life consists of relationships. It’s important to cultivate in our students a leadership of service. Many of our students are involved in volunteer work, some as leaders of NGOs. With the war, Ukraine has become a nation of volunteers. Over 60 per cent of Ukrainians do some kind of voluntary service.”
Dr Dobko is an admirer of St John Henry Newman; you can tell when he observes that “it’s important to understand that a Catholic university is different from its secular peers. We take both faith and reason seriously. We treat faith as a reality that shapes intellectual endeavour. As Pope Francis says, education is not just about learning concepts; it’s about learning to speak three languages, of the mind, heart and hands. Even now, in these circumstances, our students are resilient.”
Interestingly, the government decided to exempt undergraduates from military service. Does that mean that some people enter university to avoid becoming soldiers? “It’s true for a few people,” says Dr Dobko, “but if you want to escape there are other cheaper options. Our standards are very high.” Indeed, a number of members of the university have enlisted in the army; a law student who did has been badly injured. So far 23 people from the community have died.
Is it difficult to sustain students’ attention when the war is going on? “It is,” he says. “But we had to make the education relevant to the personal circumstances. We asked our faculty members to adapt their courses to present events and to include examples from the situation; it helps students.” Not surprisingly, there’s a good deal of focus on the principles of the just war. “They say there are no atheists in the trenches. I don’t believe it. War brutalises people and distances people from God. However, people ask questions in war. There will be questions later about how to live together. First the war must be finished; until the violence is stopped we can’t ask people for reconciliation. The Church must preach that we should not dehumanise anybody.”
After the war, the university will have a special role in helping the psychologically traumatised population through its mental health programme “to heal the wounds of war … there will be 15 million people who’ll need psychological assistance.” The university will specifically train priests to help people overcome the stigma to do with seeking psychological help. “Reconstruction is not just a physical affair.” And in that reconstruction, the Ukrainian Catholic University will have a big role to play.
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