Revolutions of Hope, Part 1: Cultivating Hope in Ukraine

Episode Topic: Cultivating Hope in Ukraine

Join Archbishop Borys Gudziak, who is Metropolitan-Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and President of Ukrainian Catholic University, to discuss how to build hope in Ukraine. He is joined in conversation by Rory Finnin, professor of Ukrainian Studies from the University of Cambridge and recipient of the 2024 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies. This event also featured remarks from Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame, Ambassador Oksana Markarova, a member of the Ukraine Mission to the U.S., Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Bishop of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, and Taras Dobko, Rector of Ukrainian Catholic University.

Featured Speakers:
-Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Ukrainian Catholic University
-President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., University of Notre Dame
-Rory Finnin, University of Cambridge
-Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States
-Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend
-Taras Dobko, Ukrainian Catholic University

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: https://go.nd.edu/12aa15.

This podcast is a part of the ThinkND Series titled Revolutions of Hope.

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Transcript

Welcome and Distinguished Guests Introduction

0:07

Welcome to this President's Forum event, the opening of the conference, revolutions of Hope, resilience and Recovery in Ukraine. My name is Clemen Sak and the service director of the Vic Institute for European Studies in the KY School of Global Affairs. This will take a while. Please allow me to welcome you all and please allow me to mention a few distinguished guests. May I suggest that I mention them all and we express our gratitude for everybody's presence with one cumulative and collective and compelling applause at the end. Your Excellency, the Arch Boris, president of the Ukrainian Catholic University and Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic A of Philadelphia. Welcome back to campus. Your ex. No, no, no applause at the end. So we have to practice that because of course there's enthusiasm for arch with your board, which I understand. Um, your ex. Dear Bishop, Kevin Rhodes, Bishop of the Fort Wayne South Bend Diocese, thank you for joining us all the way from St. Meinrad's after six hours driving in the rain. Dear Father Robert Dow, CSC, president of University of Notre Dame, thank you for your presence. Dear Professor Tara, stop co rec of the Ukrainian Catholic University. Thank you for traveling with your delegation all the way from Aviv Ukraine. Dear Dr. Sweetland Raymer Honorary Council of Ukraine to the state of Indiana, thank you for your visit. I also had prepared to, uh, greet in person our dean, um, nonetheless. Dear Professor Rory Finnan, uh, thank you for your talk yesterday and for joining us from the University of Cambridge. A special welcome to all our friends from the Ukrainian Catholic University to our keynote speakers and panelists, welcome to members of Notre Dame's leadership Vice President and first vice president Austin Collins. Welcome to you all. Thank you for being here. I welcome you all knowing that each one of you should have been mentioned by name, and I apologize that this is not possible also in your own interest, but believe me, God knows that you are here. The University of Notre Dame has shown solidarity with Ukraine more than two decades through a partnership with the Ukrainian Catholic University ku. It was established by Professor Chima Adams, who is with us, and they speck to 2004 since the full scale invasion of Ukraine, our highest university leadership has supported this partnership and has elevated it to a new level. Then university President Far John Jenkins and Vice President Michael Pippinger and their offices have led substantial initiatives including welcoming KU students to campus and enabling joint research partnerships. Our new university president, father Robert Dowd, has been part of a steering group that coordinated the Notre Dame KU connection ever since Spring 2022. In 2022. Of course, Archbishop Boris has been our commencement speaker and will never forget how we threw a football into the audience. This conference is an inaugural event as it officially establishes a Ukrainian studies hub in the Tanovic Institute, a commitment to and a platform for Ukrainian studies in Notre Dame with a special focus on joint research projects with ku. Welcome Vice President Pippinger and Dean Gallagher. The conference is hosted by the Ano Institute for European Studies in the Q School of Global Affairs, together with many partners on campus, such as in alphabetically order, not in the order of much of how much they have given in alphabetically order. The Department of German, Slavic and Ian studies. The Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the Krog Institute for International Peace Studies, the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative, Notre Dame Global, the the office of the President at Notre Dame, the program of creative writing directly Murphy Museum of Art, the NanoVi Forum established by our beloved founding benefactors. Bob and Lis Nano has also been an important part of this conference. I would also want to acknowledge our main beyond campus partner for both the conference and the Ukrainian studies hub, namely the Ukrainian Catholic University, their resilience and courage, strong faith and commitment to dignity give us a lot of hope. Hope is the theme of our conference. When we started to plan this conference 18 months ago, we could not anticipate that a brutal war launched by Russia's full scale invasion is still going on. We could not predict the global situation. We find ourselves in a global situation with many implications. For Ukraine, hope is always precious. Sometimes scars often an invitation. The point of this conference is basically the structure of a speech act. By exploring hope together, we want cultivate hope. So let me repeat that please, by exploring hope together, we want to cultivate hope. Thank you for being willing to be part of and contribute to this intellectual, social, cultural, and spiritual endeavor. As you have seen from the program, this conference tries to bring together people ideas, but also different expressions of hope and humanity. Conversations and community, film and fun, lectures and liturgy, music and meals, poetry and prayers, many, many hands nurture. Our hope that this conference will be a profound and enjoyable experience. We will thank them all at the end. I would like to mention one person, one of the hardest workers for this conference has been our event manager, Rebecca Prince. One of the most beautiful expressions of hope is new life. It is a fun fact that Becca's son Asher, is celebrating his first birthday today itself, and Asher's mom is with us. Happy birthday Asha and thank you dear. This evening has four parts in the first part, and we are right in the middle of it. We'll have the opening. This is the choreography of the opening. I'll ask his Excellency Bishop, Kevin Rhodes, for an invocation. What we all need above all is God's grace. After that, we will have opening remarks. I need to share that her Excellency Ambassador Oxana Marco from the Ukraine mission of the US had to cancel her participation at short notice for reasons that we all understand. She tried really hard to come to Notre Dame, but it was not possible. In the end, she promised a visit Later in 2025. She did send a video message. We'll have opening remarks from university President, father Bob do, followed by the Visio video message from her Excellency Ambassador. Rova remarks by honorary cons, Dr. Sweetland Arima and Recko. Then we will take a deep breath, uh, and move to the second part of the evening, a conversation between Arch Bori Koziak and Professor Rory Finnan. At 7:00 PM we will have a reception with an art exhibition showing artworks from Eva Ash and CIA Majak At seven 30, there will be brief remarks by our wonderful artists. This is the third part of the evening. Finally, the fourth part, we'll have a prayer at the grotto at 8:15 PM We'll leave from here around eight. Let us now please have a moment of collection. Excellency. Dear Bishop Broads, may I please ask you to come up to the podium and please offer invocation a prayer. On behalf of all of us here, thank you. Before praying, I am so grateful that we have such an excellent and energetic devoted director of the NanoVi Institute. Thank you, Clemens. Thank you. And, and faith filled. And faith filled in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. God, our Father, you are our refuge and our strength always with us, with your love and your grace in you. We place our trust in your son. We place all our hope and in his Holy cross. We pray this evening in a special way for our faith-filled and courageous brothers and sisters in Ukraine, that you will strengthen their hope in the midst of war and so much uncertainty about the future By the power of the Holy Spirit, may they continue to persevere in hope through our prayerful solidarity with them. May they also not feel alone in their struggle for peace and justice, comfort, all those who have lost loved ones, all those who are separated from their families, all those who are imprisoned, and all the soldiers who continue to fight to defend their homeland and grand eternal peace and joy to all those who have died in the war. Heavenly Father, we also ask that you bless all who participate in this conference. Focused on hope for Ukraine. We ask that you bless the Ukrainian studies hub here at Notre Dame and also the Ukrainian Catholic University in Aviv, and the relationship between our two universities. Here at our Ladies University, we especially pray for the inter through the intercession of our blessed mother, the queen of peace, and the mother of hope. May she intercede for her beloved sons and daughters in Ukraine and protect them under her mantle. May she intercede for all the leaders in power or authority to work for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. May Mary help all of us, especially during this Lenin season, to grow in faith, hope and love, confident in the victory of her son. Over sin and death. We ask this through him, your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Our Lady, queen of Peace, pray for us. In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. This is a President's Forum event. Our university president, father Robert Dow, talked about the central role of rich building in his inaugural address. He also mentioned Ukraine. He has shown his commitment to and love for the country and the Ukrainian Catholic University in many different ways. He has chosen for the next academic year. The President's Forum theme, cultivating hope. Dear Father Bob, thank you for the hope you bring. May I please ask you to kindly address us. Thank you. Thank you Clements. And, uh, thank you all for being here. This is such an important conference and we are so honored and grateful to be hosting it and to be working together with the Ukrainian Catholic University. It really is an honor. I wanna thank in a special way, of course, the NanoVi Institute and you Clements for your amazing leadership. I wanna thank the Keo School of Global Affairs. Wanna thank in Especi Way, Mary Gallagher, who's here present the Dean of the Keo School of Global Affairs. I also want to thank, uh, Archbishop Boris Gak. Thank you so much for, uh, your leadership and for your inspiration. We met earlier this morning. We've met several times in the past, and every time I meet with you, I can't help but be truly inspired. So thank you for your presence here with us Bishop Rhodes. It's always an honor to be here with you. Uh, our local bishop, the Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend, Bishop Rhodes. Thank you. Thank you for all of your amazing support for our work here at Notre Dame. Professor Tara Staco, uh, director of the Ukrainian Catholic University. Thank you so much for this beautiful partnership that we share. And I want to thank Rory Finnan for joining us, uh, for this important conversation here today. You know, each year here at Notre Dame, we have what we call the Notre Dame Forum, and this is a great tradition, was started by my predecessor father John Jenkins. More than 20 years ago, the Notre Dame Forum is intended to spark a campus-wide and cross-disciplinary conversation about a matter of great importance. And this year's forum theme has focused on a question. And that question is, what do we owe each other? And recently, as Clements may have mentioned, I think he did, I announced next year's Notre Dame Forum theme, and that theme is cultivating hope. This conference links in a special way. These two important themes. When we think of the war in Ukraine, we cannot help but think about our responsibilities to one another. We cannot help but think of those who have endured aggression, those who have suffered, and continue to suffer through this brutal war. At this conference, we're invited to consider, among other things what we owe each other, what we owe the victims of war, and what we owe future generations. We are also invited to consider reasons for hope and how we might be agents of hope, especially for those most impacted by this war, and those who are feeling less than hopeful at the moment. We know that this war triggered by the aggression of Russia's leader, has gone on for far too long. More than three years now, and the people of Ukraine continue to courageously defend themselves, defying all odds. Let me be perfectly clear here today. We here at Notre Dame stand with the people of Ukraine and full offer them our full support. We all want peace, there's no doubt about that, but a sustainable peace, it's just not possible. If the wishes of the Ukrainian people are not respected, a sustainable peace is not possible. If aggression is seen to be rewarded, might must never make right. Military might must never give any country the right to invade and occupy another country. So what does adjust and sustainable peace look like? How can peace be achieved? It's never been more important to find ways to engage in respectful dialogue on these and other questions. And we here at Notre Dame are grateful to be a, to have this opportunity to be together and participate in this important dialogue. While this is an especially challenging time, it's important for us to never, never lose hope. I know we're all praying for Pope Francis in a special way these days, and he notes in his recently published autobiography The Following. For we Christians, the Future has a name, and this name is Hope. Having hope doesn't mean being. Naive optimists who ignore the tragedy of human evil. Hope is the virtue of a heart that does not close itself in the dark, doesn't stop at the past, doesn't scrape along in the present, but can clearly see tomorrow. Restless and joyous. This is how we Christians must be. So let us, let us do our best to be restless in our solidarity with the courageous people of Ukraine. Together with them, let us be restless in pursuit of a sustainable and just peace. And let us be joyous in hope that there will dawn a new day. A new day for Ukraine and all people who suffer the brutal effects of war. Have a wonderful conference everybody, and God bless you all. Thank you, father Bob. And now if the tech doesn't leave us, we will play the video message from her Excellency, ambassador Sana Marco from the Ukraine mission to the us. Dear President, Reverend Father, do, Bishop Rhodes, Archbishop, very warm greetings from Washington DC He wa I was very much looking forward to joining you in person, but unfortunately, president work commitments here in Washington DC do not allow me to travel to my favorite state of Indiana. Let me thank the University of Notre Dame Keo School of Global Affairs and NanoVi Institute for European Studies for organizing the conference on hope and resilience that shape Ukraine through pivotal moments of our history. Today's event gives me a wonderful opportunity to thank the University leadership President do former President Father John Jenkins, vice President for inter internationalization, Michael Inger and Vic Institute Director Clemen Sidak, and of course, students who not only embraced the idea of establishing the Ukrainian studies hub, but also launched a successful fundraising campaign to support continued programming in Ukraine. The institute and the university have had relationship with the Ukrainian Catholic University in IV for more than 20 years now. For me and all my colleagues at the embassy, the many acts of solidarity demonstrated by Notre Dame. University towards the colleagues and France at Ukrainian Catholic University. An entire Ukraine was truly inspiring for me and my family. As long, uh, time supporters of Catholic University, it's even more inspiring. Thank you for turning your research and teaching into a force of good and building the strong foundations of continuous partnership between academic communities and our two countries. The Nano Institute's commitment to Ukraine not only during times of war, but also when peace comes, will enrich the next generation of our students by the incredible cultural, religious, and intellectual heritage of both of our nations. Please accept our deepest appreciation of your efforts to establish additional scholarships and comprehensive support for Ukrainian students and scholars impacted by this horrible war. One of them is Christina Kazak. A human rights lawyer specialize in, in displacement, who thanks to university support, is now pursuing Master of Global Affairs, was focused on international peace studies. We are confident that such knowledge and skills will be highly needed in Ukraine once just and last in peace is restored in our country. And we're deeply thankful to Notre Dame University for making this long-term intellectual investment in Ukraine's future and that of Europe's also and also of transatlantic security. Dear France, last month marked the third very sad anniversary of Russia's brutal full-scale attack on Ukraine and 11 years since Kremlin's illegal annexation of Crimea and occupation of our Eastern territories. It is the war on multiple fronts. Our brave soldiers and civilians defend Ukraine's physical and spiritual integrity while we diplomat scholars, experts. Continue our efforts on information fronts by educating American and international societies about what is really at stake and why Ukraine resists so persistently and so relentlessly even in the most difficult situations. Appropriation of Ukraine's culture and denial of our national identity remains the key avenues of Russia's criminal war against Ukraine. It puts the task of decolonizing Ukraine and Ukrainian studies at the center of our ES efforts. We need to restore historical justice and deny Russia any claims over Ukraine and our statehood. We at the Embassy of Ukraine in the US attempt to play a modest but impactful role in educating and sharing this information with the next generation of American policy makers. Not only about the world today, but about Ukraine's history, culture, our national identity last July, together with the National Academy of Science of. We have held high level conference that aimed to strengthen academic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. First Lady of UK Ukraine. Zelensky encouraged all present to join the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies to ignite greater interest in Ukraine and advance international knowledge about our culture and history. The coalition is growing and we're so grateful and happy to that Notre Dame University enthusiastically support this initiative. Let me thank all of you for solidarity with Ukraine and for your everyday work and prayers as Ukraine's cultural and academic ambassadors. Only. Together we can achieve victory on all fronts and protect Ukraine, but also freedoms, freedoms that we all value and cherish and values. Amit, all current and future threats. I wish you fruitful debates and all of the best. Success. Success in your academic endeavors. I may God bless all of you. And may God bless America and Ukraine and Slavo Ukraine. Thank you to her excellency, Dr. Sweetland Rama. Honor a cons of Ukraine to the state of Indiana, has done a lot to bring Ukraine to Indiana in the past years. She has been a true bridge builder. In March, 2022, she formed the Ukrainian Society of Indiana as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine and as a source of hope. Dear Cons, Dr. Rama, may I please ask you to speak to us dear colleagues? Uh, and if I may, dear friends, welcome to the heart of the Heartland. To the Crossroads of America and ambassador's. Favorite state, the state of Indiana, and also welcome to one of its preeminence, centers of Scientific Inquiry and Academic Excellence, university of Notre Dame. Earlier today I was in Fort Wayne, delivering a keynote, uh, to, uh, a luncheon dedicated to International Women's Day, where I talked about the power of moments, those anchoring moments, that those deciding moments. And I hope that you have a full appreciation of how important this moment that we all have The honor to witness is because it is at the same time a culmination and a beginning. It is a culmination of 20 years of efforts from the University of Notre Dame to foster connections with academics and with people of Ukraine. It is also the beginning, the beginning of this very exciting journey and the start of the Ukrainian studies hub. I truly struggle to fully express how monumental, how important it is that we are here today witnessing an entire conference on Ukrainian studies held in the United States of America. Because if you would've said to some of our ancestors that this would be taking place, they probably wouldn't believe you. And they, they, they would think that this type of event would be a historical impossibility. If you wonder why, because in 1769, the Moscow Senate. Banned primers in Ukrainian language and ordered the confiscation of all existing ones denying our people the opportunity to access faith in their native language. And then in 1784, Ukrainian lectures were banned at Cave Mala Academy, and Russian was instituted as the official language in all imperial schools denying our people the opportunity to access knowledge, to build knowledge in our native language, and to explore our culture in an academic setting. And then the infamous, um, of circular of 1863, that banned all Ukrainian language materials saying, and I quote, there never was, is not, and cannot be any separate little Russian language. The subsequent S or the S order of 1876 that extended the ban on Ukrainian publications to all books prohibited the import of Ukrainian books that was developed by the diaspora communities and prohibited any performances in Ukrainian language and even the use of Ukrainian language in musical notes. And then in 1932, the Soviet authorities invited Ukrainian Kab Zas to a symposium in Kyiv. Most of these people, elderly, visually impaired individuals, and then executed everyone who arrived. And later in 1930s, they executed and repressed 30,000 of Ukrainian intelligentsia. A tragedy we now know as the executed renaissance since the beginning of the full scale invasion, they have targeted. Museums, libraries, universities, all of those centers where we develop the knowledge of who we are. You would think that after centuries of this, what would there be left to study? How could we possibly have enough of Ukrainian left to inspire inquiry and reflection? And yet, here we are, here you are gathering that knowledge grain by grain, just like our an, just like Ukrainians did during Hodor and putting it together into a beautiful tapestry of survival, of resilience, and of beauty. So if you are here today, because you stand for truth and for justice. You at the right place. Welcome. If you are here because you hold steadfast steadfastly to values of freedom and resilience, you've come to the right place, welcome. And if you are here because you believe above all and despite all in hope you have come to the right place. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Sweet Lana. This conference and our Ukraine studies hub are all about bridge building. The strongest bridges we have with regard to Ukraine is the bridge with the Ukrainian Catholic University in Aviv. Recta. Tara Toko is a dear friend and in a recent statement he wrote about his university. I quote. We choose to remain an island of stability, a bridge for social cohesion, and a community of hope in an ocean of turbulence. End of good. We are inspired by Ukrainian Catholic University and its leadership Director Doko. May I please ask you for your opening remarks? Up to 10 minutes. Thank you, Clements, for your generosity. Uh, uh, your Excellency Archbishop Akk. Your Excellency Bishop wrote Dear Father, uh, doubt. Uh, dear Professor Gallagher, dear Professor Sak, uh, dear France, uh, of Notre Dame and Ukraine, uh, on Monday, you know, when entering the United States, uh. At Chicago, at O'Hare Chicago Airport. I was routinely asked by, uh, the officer at the border about the reason why I come. So I sat, you know, back home. I am, uh, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University. I'm going to a join conference here at the University of Notre Dame, with which we have very close partnership. And then, you know, officer uh, asked me, are you coming to teach Irish, Irish how to fight Russia? I said, wait, wait. First of all, no need to teach Irish how to fight. They are already fighting in Irish. So, but really, I, you know, I come to, uh, Notre Dame for other reasons, and first of all, to meet friends, also to draw, uh, strengths and inspiration, and also to get filled with hope. Uh, I would like to start really with a word of gratitude. Our conference celebrates the inauguration of the Ukrainian Studies hub at the University of Notre Dame, and today I am filled with gratitude as we also celebrate two decades long pass that brought us to this very moment. I'm also filled with joy since it is my deep conviction that the university, uh, the Ukrainian studies hub will contribute significantly to the longstanding interest in Ukraine at the University of Notre Dame. Our conference is centered on hope, so I would like to share with you some remarks on whole. I started with a testament testimony by Maxim, a journalist and human rights activist, who was a commencement speaker at KU a months ago. In the first days of the full scale invasion, Maxim volunteered to defend Ukraine in June, 2022. He became a prisoner of war and spent two years and four months in Russian captivity. Maxim Stu, everyone, when he started his speech by saying that his time in captivity was not a waste for him, I quote, I didn't have a single moment of boredom while in prison, I always had something to do. I taught English to my cellmates, and one of my best students even suggested that I patent a new teaching methods without text, without pens, without paper or anything at all. I tried to write text columns or speeches in my head. I recalled the prayers. I knew I created new ones and tried to develop my own prayer rule. I spent a lot of time reflecting on fundamental concepts and values. End of quote, Maxim mentioned his spiritual discipline of replaying in memory meetings with people dear to his heart as a way to survive and not surrender to the system, which was designed for the human person's degradation, deprivation, and humiliation. Imprisoned, he realized how much we depend on each other and what a blessing this dependence could be if it is based on love. To me, Maxim acted like a person of hope. Hope manifests itself when, from a human point of view, it seems that unfavorable circumstances are much stronger than we are as agents. Hope becomes an expression of our agency and human dignity in dire circumstances, and at worse life conditions and hope calls for action. By the way, in Ukrainian, the word hope, NA has action. Dia embedded as its verbal component. Hope is born of the marriage between magnanimity and humility to seemingly polar virtues. Hope is magnanimous as it is, uh, as it implies the spirit's desire for great things and the courage to go against the tide for the sake of a significant mission, which could be in Maxim's case about preserving his agency and dignity. Only a great good can give us the strength to withstand, at worst circumstances, preserve our dignity, cope with anger and frustration, resist victim based identity and move to action. But at the same time, hope is also humble, as it implies awareness and acceptance of God's will as a game changer. Hope is about patience, which stems from trust in God's providence. From the realization that God is the Lord of history, and that he has the final world word, they will be done are the words of a personal hope In a broken world, humility keeps a personal of magnanimous hope from becoming a fanatic and from turning a great idea into an unhealthy attachment. A idol that destroys the fullness of life, one who has hope lives differently. To live with hope in our days means to be ready to swim against the current and a rather strong current. The familiar world order is collapsing. Aggressive national egoisms get stronger, and human dignity may once again become an empty sound for the powerful of this world who might seek to deprive people of their sense of freedom and agency. Turn them into voiceless, defenseless, and right beings. Live by hope in such a world means remembering the call of the Grand Prince. I quote, do not let the strong destroy the human person. End quote, against all odds. We must believe in the human person and enact his her God-given dignity in our societies. In a country torn by wars, there are many w wary and disheartened. People and challenges seem to be beyond human strengths. Today, being a Ukrainian is not about being comfortable. Foreigners are not rushing to obtain a Ukrainian passport or even to pay Ukrainian a visit. Today, our enemy is trying to make Ukraine a symbol of failure and ruin. To live by hope in such a country means to be on a mission, to bring hope, where it hurts, where things fall apart, and where anxiety overwhelms. In Ukraine, hope is not only a spiritual resource, not only a source of strengths for individuals in difficult times, but also a strategic security asset. Russia seeks to install fear in people's hearts. It's trying to demoralize Ukrainians to confuse our mind, weaken our will, and to seize our hearts. It is important to protect our hearts from anxiety, cynicism, and anger. It's important to face adversity with courage, suffering with resilience and uncertainty with hope. Hope translated into social action can protect our society from exploding from within, and encourage it to release the positive energy needed to transform the country. I wish we could be ready today for this kind of vision and work based on hope, which is most probably the work. A delayed effect when not those who so will collect and enjoy harvest. I hope that our conference will help us to get ready and, uh, for, and live up to this challenge. So I'm really looking forward to our informal conversations, intellectual discussions and cultural communication during the conference. Thank you very much. Enjoy the conference at Notre Dame. God bless Notre Dame and my God bless Ukraine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tara. Rather than having a keynote lecture, we thought it would be lovely also in the spirit of cultivating hope together to have a conversation between two very inspiring people. Archbishop Bouri Koziak is, as I mentioned before, metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Ark Que of Philadelphia, and as such the highest ranked pate in the United States. He's a past director and current president of the Ukrainian Catholic University, which would not exist in its current impressive form without him. Ash Boris is a dear friend of Notre Dame, and as I mentioned, our commencement speaker from 2022, and this makes him a member of our Notre Dame family. Welcome, Archbishop Boris. Hey, finon is a dear friend of the NanoVi Institute. He has been on campus in the fall. As the 2024 Laura Shannon book Prize winner for his internationally acclaimed book, blood of Others, Stalins Crimean Atrocity, and the Poetics of Solidarity. Rory Finnan, a native from Cleveland, Ohio, is Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. He launched Cambridge Ukrainian studies in 2008 and is one of the world's leading experts on Ukraine. He's not only an expert, he deeply cares about the country, and he deeply respects Arch Boris. So this is a good start. Welcome, dear Professor Finn. What will happen now? Professor Finon will engage Archbishop Boris in a conversation until 6 42. I give you two extra minutes. There will be an opportunity to ask some questions, I believe, but I put the dynamics now in Professor Finian's. Very capable hands. Thank you. So thank you, Clements. Uh. Uh, it is such a pleasure and a privilege to sit with you. The respect is deep. Um, when I was here at Notre Dame in the fall, uh, I made my way to the Vic Institute premises, uh, a new place, colleagues, I was just getting to know there were some nerves. And then I walked in the Nano Big Institute, looked down the corridor and saw your image on the wall, amid this wonderful mosaic of photographs and immediately felt at home. So I want to begin by thanking you and of course, uh, thanking the students and scholars of the Ukrainian Catholic University, the Keo and NanoVi teams, and the entire Notre Dame family for advancing knowledge about Ukraine at this pivotal and very dangerous moment, and for through this Ukrainian studies hub, investing in the future of this knowledge and what it means for us all, not only here at Notre Dame, but around the country. And I thought. The presentations here were, um, really rich and moving, and Svitlana really struck me with this broader historical perspective about the study of Ukraine in the United States. And I thought we could start there because this conference is indeed very, very remarkable. I think it's a culmination of, of, of, of, uh, collaboration and research and commitment, um, that we should begin by, by noting, and we often discuss this term, decolonization of the field. The ambassador mentioned this term earlier, decolonization, decolonizing Ukraine, and indeed Slavic studies. So I thought we could begin here and talk about the importance and the gravity of a program that is trying to do that. Thank you. Thank you Rory. And thank you Father Bob and the whole team at ke. Clemens, thank you so much. And there's so many friends here. Uh, I love coming to Notre Dame. Um, it's, it's one of the places where I just feel embraced and relaxed. And for that, it's kind of a place of hope for me. And so hope our conversation and our conference can be, uh, something that lifts us up, that, um, drops our fears a little bit and puts things in Lord's perspective. There's something incredibly important happening at Notre Dame today and tomorrow with the inauguration of this Ukrainian studies hub. Why were so many European leaders able? Over the last two or three decades to allow such dependency on Russian gas. Where were they not capable of naming offenses against human rights? Uh, the war crimes in Chea in Georgia? Why do people today, some people, a lot of good people don't understand what's going on. What, what, um, consequences might be of one action or another? Why do politicians make such. Such shocking, uh, moves and irresponsible statements. There's many reasons for that, but one fundamental reason is the lack of understanding and an attachment to stereotypes. I dunno how many of you in October predicted that Assad would fall. He was there, he was gonna stay there. George Bush Sr. Came to, uh, Kyiv at the beginning of August, 1991 and wagged his finger at the Ukrainians and word them to not seek independence. Beware of your suicidal nationalism, and separate as it be said, three weeks later, it was all over. Soviet Union was, was falling apart. Ukraine proclaimed independence in December. It voted a referendum and that was it. Uh, why is that why such surprise at events? It's because in people's heads there's concepts which don't reflect, reflect reality. There's this idea that Russia has to have 10 times zones, that it having 28 times the territory of Ukraine can pretend for a 29th part. We have to be careful about them despite the fact that we don't tolerate this anywhere else. We don't tolerate. Colonialism, imperialism. I dunno if everybody here realizes that There's a hundred ethnic groups, a hundred nations. In the Russian Federation, the Ottoman Empire fell apart. The Austrian empire fell apart. France, Spain, Portugal had to, uh, relinquish its colonies. Ultimately, great Britain, an empire in which the sun never set, fell apart. Every time this happened, it happened when a nation fought for its dignity. A people, a smaller people, put up a fight. Now with that pattern, why is there so much doubt that this can happen? And in fact, sooner or later will happen? With the Russian Federation. Why?'cause it's in people's heads. And why is it in people's heads? Well, we know the Slavic world, just about every Slavic program in the United States is a Russian program. It's a program of Russian studies. There's no Polish studies, there's no Croatian studies, nothing about the Czech, the Slovaks, the Belarusians, and nothing about the Ukrainians. And three years ago, when I came, uh, to speak and have my five seconds of fame in, and the house that new Rockney built, you know, I threw the pass and it was caught. And I could say, touchdown Jesus. Uh. I shared this thought of about decolonizing Russian studies in America, and today Notre Dame sets a special example. It's an academic scholarly response to one of the biggest crises in humanity on the globe right now. And I want to thank you for that. And I hope many other universities follow suit. But that is what is happening in these days. That's very hopeful. That's very hopeful. People hold people nations, hundreds of millions of people get a name through this. Their story is recognized, and most importantly, their future dignity has a chance, and it happens here. It's slow. We need patient systematic work. And it's so important when that work is done with love. I, I think we all feel loved here at Notre Dame Rory. I agree. I agree. And I, I do feel as we start this discussion, we have to address the elephant in the room because under normal circumstances, um, I would approach a conversation like this one feeling that the, uh, most important time to discuss hope and to discuss hope in a defiant way is when hope is most tested. What worries me right now is that the United States is playing a role in testing that hope with a kind of cruelty, withdrawing military aid, refusing intelligence. Provision. Um, these are things that empower and enable Russian aggression, and I think it's important that we recognize this clearly and then resolve to, to act in response. But in this process, I also feel myself falling into a familiar trap. And the trap is that I focus on Washington DC or I focus on Moscow and I do something and I tell every student and policymaker I ever talk to, and that is center Ukrainians in their own story. Because this, this trap has led us to make so many analytical mistakes from imagining that Kyiv would fall in three days from downplaying the significance of Ukraine's armed forces, reclaiming territory that had been taken from them, from defeating and displacing, for instance, the Russian Black Sea fleet without a conventional navy invading and then holding. Russian territory for over six months and on and on and on. So Ukrainians are the ones shaping this present and future, and they will continue to defy conventional wisdom. So I want to avoid this trap and start with this question of agency, uh, Ukraine's agency, Ukraine's role in the world, which of course involves a discussion of human dignity. So I'm, I'm interested in your views over the past horrific three years, but your views and your memories, your moments of encountering that agency and that dignity and action. Our, um, growing sociological psychological awareness and kind of a real attentiveness to, um, spiritual moments and personal family, social and general human life. Show us that. Violence, oppression, slavery, scar scars, people, you know, I don't know if any, if any of you have been bit by a dog, but most people that have been bit by a dog once are always afraid of dogs. I got hit in the cave subway. Anybody that's used those blue coins, uh, in KU to get into that subway, they have these, you know, you put the coin in these little plastic coins you used to, at least it would open, you would pass, and then it would close. But one time I was going through and it hit me here, every time I go through a cave subway, I'm like, chucking, is it gonna One time? It was just one time. What happens when you have. Generation after generation of genocide between 1914 and 1950, maybe as many as 14 million residents of Ukraine died an unnatural death'cause of world wars, the artificial famine, uh, you know, deportations, the Holocaust. How do you live that when you couldn't even speak about the famine? The most amazing thing, an agency that is happening, Rory, I think is the transformation in the hearts of Ukrainians. Um, and the prime example of prime public example is, um, president Zelensky. This was a man that had very shallow appreciation of culture and history when he became president. I haven't told them this, but I would've never voted for him. I doubt many people at KU did. Uh, he cracked jokes about the genocide, I mean, in a, in a demeaning way. He, he was really, he said, uh, you know, these cultural things don't matter. Doesn't matter if we have streets named after genocidal Soviet tyrants. Changing the street names isn't important. We just have to make sure they're asphalted properly. That was six years ago. V Zelensky is a totally different person today. He's a completely different person on this, uh, on this level. He's gone through a conversion. I, I'm still, you know, praying for mine. That is human life. And this is what is happening in Ukraine. A plurality of the defenders of Ukrainian territorial integrity and, uh, independence. And the first five or seven years of this, this war that started 11 years ago were Russian speaking. People don't realize that, um, out of the 670 churches that have been damaged, just so, so far, most of them are of the Moscow patriarchy. Members of that church are, are looking elsewhere now, you know, for their spiritual orientation. There's an incredible transformation that has occurred. Now, is everybody heroic? No. But you've heard that 14 million people were forced from their homes in the first three months. Never in human history have so many people been moved so quickly from their homes. Never. There's now at least 4 million IDPs internally, displaced persons. Where, where, where are the refugee camps? Where are the big settlements? They've been absorbed, they've been hosted by families, by institutions, uh, by cities, towns, and villages. The poor are helping the Absolutely destitute. That is agency, that is what we call Catholic social, uh, teaching. Everybody at Notre Dame knows what the four points are. Anybody can help me? Point number one, dignity the whole person. Dignity. What kind of dignity? Where does it come from? Who gives it? It's God-given dignity, not because of a constitution or economic quality status. It's holy. It's sacred. Nobody can violate it. Two solidarity. You can see it. You can see it in the country. Three subsidiarity. You saw it in the Ukrainian army. Remember those first weeks when the Russian, the tank files were just waiting there and the Russian forces were waiting for the general to say something while the Ukrainian soldiers running around in these little hastily assembled civil defense units. We're using Javelins to knock them out. American Javelins, we thank you President Trump. If you have any doubts, we do. Uh, that is subsidiarity, not waiting for Baar. You know, the big czar at the top to decide I'm taking responsibility for my family, my town, my village, all over the country is just mushroom. And with what goal does work, the So Catholic social doctrine work the common good. This has been the voice, particularly the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church from 1901 when Metropolitan Shatsky began a 44 year service as head of the church. When he, in doses that were understandable, even in mountain dialect, would present Catholic social doctrine and then model it through institutions. That was carried into the underground by the Ukrainian Catholic Church when it was outlawed in 1946 and became the biggest outlawed Christian Church in the world. With that, it came out and the other leaders like Lu er continued with humor, you know, issuing a pastoral letter about speeding, why this is socially irresponsible, for example, hundreds of little doses, and so unbeknownst to himself, president Zelensky is a student and Catholic social doctrine. Which was all four of those points were on the madans. In 1990, the Madan on the granite that put deposed, uh, unjust prime minister of the still Soviet Ukrainian socialist republic, the, uh, up, let's say movement against kuchma president Kuchma, uh, authoritarian authoritarianism during which the journalist za was found beheaded. And our students were protesting. And I was threatened with deportation on television until, uh, Edward Lucas, if you know that name, wrote, wrote an article in The Economist and, and the ambassador. Made a public, uh, showing in, in support of the Ukrainian Catholic University, that that was the agency on the Maan in 2004, again in 2013 and 14. Ukrainians are changing at the same time. They've been feeding 400 million people 10 times the population of the country. That's pretty concrete agency globally. Um, so, you know, one could, one could go on, but um, this agency deserves respect. And, uh, when a bully is attacking it, it needs a little bit of solidarity. Ukrainians are not asking for, you're my pity, they'll get the work done, but they're fighting Russia. Which is supported by China. All those armaments now have Chinese components in them. They've been reigned upon with Iranian drones. And North Korea set 20, 30,000 soldiers into the country. And Ukraine is making the stand that's agency. Um, and that is because there's great hope that, uh, God's truth will prevail. You spoke earlier about culture and yesterday I had the privilege of, of speaking with the community here about the, the poetry of Tara Chenko. We spoke a great deal about the power of culture in the political transformations of Ukraine as a modern political entity over centuries, and the transformation you're talking about now and one of the. Um, voices I often return to in Ukrainian literature is the voice of CIA raca, who was a poet, playwright, activist, light years ahead of her time. Um, we're still, I think, trying to catch up to Laia RACA today. And in 1890 she wrote, uh, a poem called, uh, against Hope. I hope. Um, it portrays hope as, uh, something very precious. Well, you should mention that she had from, from almost childhood, uh, very serious, uh, tuberculosis. Tuberculosis of the bones. Yeah. Of the bones. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so she, when she writes, for instance. Uh, no. I want to, through tears, laugh and among evil, uh, sing my songs, uh, without hope. I will hope nonetheless. Um, I want to live, uh, thoughts of sadness, you know, be gone. A really powerful poem, a poem that you know many of us, uh, recite. 10 years later, she composes a play called Cassandra, which foregrounds the character from classical antiquity, who is more or less put on the margins of Homer and Virgil's epic poems. The, the Trojan Priestess, who's blessed with the power of foresight, but cursed by Apollo, um, for having no one believe her, particularly her warnings about the destruction of Troy, the hands of Greek invaders, and I think there are a lot of Ukrainian Cassandras in this very room. With us today, were warning about Russian aggression and we're not heated. But in that play, um, Cassandra faces people who equate hope with passivity, and many of them ask simply to just be left alone in their hope, but that hope is a kind of ignorance. So she, she portrays hope in two different ways. I'm interested in how you conceive of hope and where do you find hope in Ukraine today? Well, Taras already said that the word hope naia includes the word dia. It's kind of onion actually, if you take the word apart, um, and it, it is manifest in that solidarity. It's, um, it's grassroots. Um, in September, I took a trip. Um, I left the view the fateful night, when. You probably saw it in newspapers when one family was dec decimated by a rocket attack. Uh, the wife and three daughters were, were killed and the man was left alone and there was a funeral with four white caskets. Uh, one of them is an KU student, and I think her birthday is, is coming up. What's that? The family. And he, he came to Washington in February to, you know, to speak to people at Congress and, uh, I left and went to od uh, Odessa and then, you know, through the, uh, south, uh, all the way up to Haku. It was amazing. Odessa, I hadn't been there since 1988, so that's what, 30, 30 odd years? 36 years or? Uh, it was a very different city, uh, in the mic region. Uh, there was Nilla Holub all about four 11 of her, uh, with a thick, thick, uh, braid down to the bottom of her back. And she's running a cooperative, hundreds of hectares of land. Their installations, much of their equipment had been, uh, destroyed, uh, because that area was briefly occupy it. Um, but then, um, Warren Buffet lent them a big bot and. Lent them a big combine and you know, it was September, it was right after the harvest. There was a good harvest. Uh, now that's not too far away from the front lines. And you know, just listening to that, you know, to the stories about the death, the destruction, and seeing this woman, uh, that is running, you know, a collective, uh, this cooperative of, of a few hundred people. Um, and then getting served the best, the best pierogi I've ever had in my life. It was just incredible. Then we moved to, uh, an that's a, what is that? So there's been a restructuring of Ukrainian administration according to which. Following the principle of subsidiarity, uh, taxes. Now tax revenue is given to these communes, and in this case it, it, it's kind of a, a collection of 20 villages with one mayor. I don't know if it has 20,000 people. Uh, this mayor for I think, uh, about two months. Uh, Ko uh, he was in, um, captivity as mayor. You know, mayors of in occupation were, were tortured. Uh, they, they were, they wanted to force them to, you know, kind of become their servants to betray the oath they made as, um, leaders of, of, you know, the Ukrainian communities. He. I couldn't imagine, you know, uh, he looked like a, a Wall Street businessman with a very nice suit, but a vis Ivanka and embroidered shirt behind his back. There were about 20 diplomas of all of the different, uh, seminars and trainings that he went through. He told me about his deputy mayor for international affairs, how many American cities have a deputy mayor for international affairs, you know, and he's, you know, got this international cooperation going. Then we went up, uh, a little further, you know, teki and went to, uh, Bishop, um Parish, a small parish, uh. Maybe 50 people, but the chapel is the size of, you know, your living room. We had a little prayer there. Then we moved into the other room for, for little refreshments and conversation. It was pretty late. It was like nine o'clock. And there we see the whole setup is like a vertical weaving system to make, uh, camouflage nets. And you've got these 70-year-old women making camouflage nets. Um, that's that idea on action. Uh, people are finding their trust in each other. They are feeding themselves and feeding the Middle East and North Africa. Uh, they're rebuilding, uh, the. Electricity people, day after day repair, the destroyed electricity grid that was really supported by U-S-A-I-D funding, uh, it should be noted, which is now stopped. Um, and they go forward. They also have great hope the people, because they've got brothers and sisters and fathers and neighbors who are on the front and they say, we got it easy. We got it easy. And we're, we're, we're under fire. The rockets are falling, but they're, they're on the front. And so I think when the Lord gives us the opportunity, you know, the challenge to, um, to develop hope, let me just quote Romans. This is, this is the. The passage that, um, letter to the Romans on which the Holy Father, and again, we, we call for prayers, he, he dedicated this year to hope. And the document, uh, announcing this is called Hope Does Not Disappoint. Where does that phrase come from? It comes from Romans five. And let me quote a extent so the, the, the, the first five, um, lines of that chapter. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand and we boast in hope of the glory of God. We're gonna see it. We know we're baptized into Christ. We're part of his body. We're we're nourished by his body. We're identified with him. He calls us brothers and sisters, not servants. And by virtue of that, we're children of the Father. We've gained access to this grace in which we stand. We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions. Knowing that afflictions produce endurance. Endurance. Proven character. Proven character hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Does that mean that every, you know, and ole and soldier, you know. Is praying on the front or will will be, you know, a regular Sunday communicant after the war. No, the Lord, the Lord speaks in, in different ways, but there's faith. There's reflection upon death. You know, people who face death have to think about it. And of course, the natural reaction is to be afraid. We're not masochists. We, we don't want to kill ourselves. We're not suicidal. So there is, there is trepidation before death, but then you look at it and you weigh things. Is it better to die with a gun in your hand than to be tortured to death? Is it better to die trying to defend your village, your family? To have them die in a genocidal military action, an artificial famine, a gas poisoning. In the end, my life is important, but maybe there's something bigger than my life. My 180 pounds, my 80 years, there's something bigger than that. And that's what people are thinking. And when you see that in somebody else, you start thinking yourself and you say, wait a second, he can do it. She can do it. I can do it. I can smile like Les Yinka did. Having excruciating pain in her bones throughout, much of her, much of her life. And I can stand up. And this is why this conference is important for America. Today, right now I walk the halls of Washington a lot in the last few weeks. There's a lot of scared people, talented diplomats in the State Department who don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow, and all these government offices. Father, thank you for talking to me about my dignity, which I did with one person. She says, you know, I can't speak. I said, I know what you're feeling. I hope that today Ukraine can give America hope to not be afraid. Don't be afraid at Notre Dame. Say what you have to say. Say what is true. Witness. Make the stand for the immigrants for the poor, for the unjustly fired. Because it's, it's easy to get crushed by fear. And I think there's great trepidation today in Ukraine, but uh, there's also a trust, a trust in God. It's in when we hope for God's glory, when we hope to see God, when we know that, that that is what we are called to, we look at it with things in a different way. And Rory, I think that is, you know, that's happening. Whether it's explicitly, you know, evangelical Christian, I mean evangelical meaning gospel language or, or whether it's the infusion of the truth that the Holy Spirit gives loving every person. Paris, when we last saw each other in Kyiv a number of months ago, you very kindly gave me a book that you had written. About, uh, patriarch Joseph Lappe, um, leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the first rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, uh, a visionary. Um, you cite him a number of times in this book and in reading it, I was really struck by a number of moments, but one of them was, um, this comment that it's time for us to be ourselves. And I wanted to reflect upon this with respect to the work of the Ukrainian Catholic University and the work of scholarship. More generally, how do you feel the Ukrainian Catholic University, how is ku, the students and the scholars that are out there in the world, how are they helping shape Ukraine? So it can be itself. Maybe it's Rory. Good for me to kind of explain what my perspective is. Um. Uh, in 1992, I was asked to work on developing this university, and that's what I did for 20 years. But for the last 13 years, I've had a different service, which I expect accepted, kind of kicking and screaming. Uh, I was sent into Silk Exile into Paris to be bishop in Paris. The budget there, you're, you think I'm, you know, being kind of, uh, uh, funny, uh, the budget was 35,000 euros for my whole diocese, Bishop Kevin, if you can imagine, 35,000. It was the first diocese in the world. I, I don't think any diocese had a budget of 35,000 euros. You know, my mother supported me. I had no salary. You know, it's true. I mean, that's, that's how it was. My, uh, in s my mother in Syracuse, New York. Uh, so I am not there day to day. They say president, but that's not like Father Bob, who, you know, has reigns in his hands. I president means head of the board of directors, but I come and visit, uh, this child, uh, that, you know, has grown. Uh, and my departure was, you know, very important because within eight years of my departure, the university tripled. So it seems like I was, you know, kind of stopping, slowing the, the growth. Rory, I come back and I'm amazed. Mm-hmm. I'm really amazed. Um, it's, it's, it's a miracle. I dunno how long it's gonna last, you know? I see There's no corruption KU at KU until now. Uh, but you know, I look at Tarara and I met Tarara when he was like 20 years old. We created a, a Catholic students movement. This was 1990, and he's a mathematician, uh, that went to Lichtenstein on a mountain studying philosophy. And he wrote a thesis on the philosophy of happiness. He's a happy guy, you know, he's a happy guy. And Notre Dame gave him a year of a sabbatical before he became rector. And I thank you for that because there's this community that the budgets, the budgets typically are like within two or 3%. You know, they plan and that's what actually happens. Although it's all hand to mouth. Uh, and, you know, they got beautiful buildings and you got, it's, it's almost as good as Notre Dame. You know, you come, everybody's smiling and. And everybody's welcoming and they're, you know, you're a guest. They explain to you, well, this is how we deal with, you know, the air raid sirens. Here, I'll escort you to the basement. You experienced it. Uh, Michael, um, it's, it's, it's an authentic, you know, place of, of, of, of the Kingdom of Heaven. Uh, there's serious scholarship, a lot of books. Uh, father Ydi, where are you? Father Ydi. He's now also your guest. I think in the last two years or three years, he's published 16,000 pages in four volumes. Uh, this is all during the war, and he has four kids. Uh, so people are writing, people are researching, there's conferences. Uh, we just finished, uh, rebuilding a Building. Uh. Not because it was hit by the war. Uh, do you know how many schools and university buildings have been destroyed? It's close to 3000 in Ukraine, but people go forward and, and this university is really a sign of hope. You know, when I'm down, you know, I call view. Uh, and you know, I I I hope that, uh, uh, the great generosity of Notre Dame can also be returned by, by some of this spirit of, of hope. I realize I've been monopolizing you in this entire discussion, and I think we do have some time for questions from, um, our dear friends here. So if you do have a question, would you mind just raising your hand for me so I can, yeah, if I can see you. Um, I think I saw a hand just before, but perhaps, um. It's mistaken. Yeah. Well, I have very fond memories. While you're all thinking of your question, I have very fond memories of a visit years ago, uh, of my wonderful colleagues from KU to Cambridge, where we were, um, thinking that Cambridge could offer some interesting institutional examples for ku. And then what became very clear in conversations with Taras and Oya and others was that actually Cambridge could be learning from KU more than the other way around. Uh, and I think that's still the case. Um, is there a question? Yes, Jake. Oh, perfect. Hi, my name is Renata and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. And I think that there's a correlation here because coming to the United States, we've in fact seen the membership of the church grow by. The same amount that you saw it, uh, grow in ku. So thank you for your presence here on your leadership with the Ukrainian Catholic Church here in North America. And my question is, how can we working at our Saturday schools of Ukrainian studies help develop that same sense of purpose and of hope? And this may sound like a very small parochial question, I'm sorry for the pun. But the whole point is that we have all these children here in North America, Canada included, that go to these Saturday schools, and they really don't feel a sense of purpose. They still have an animosity towards the Saturdays that are robbed of them. How can we work together? How can we really emphasize the importance of Ukrainian studies in these Saturday schools and help to teach these children that they all are also sort of this agency for change and hope? Thank you. This might not be, uh, you know, um. I'm not gonna give you an answer on how to do it practically, but I, I'll give you something that is definitely foolproof. Try to introduce as much humor as you can. Humor is lightness. Humor is mystery. Humor is sacrament. Humor is paradox. Humor turns things upside down. Kid thinks that, uh, you know, they're, uh, we didn't wanna go to these Saturday schools, but Saturday in the sixties because there were all the cartoons were on, I don't know what kids do now. They probably just use computers or something. Uh, but that needs to be flipped upside down, and that's what, what humor does if, uh, humor and challenge. Um. And, um, you know, if, if you wanna move something, ku there's a lot of humor at ku. It's, it's, people are, are laughing all the time and, and, and, you know, uh, needling each other, et cetera. Um, our schools should be a place of joy. And that's, that's what Jesus brings. You know, Jesus is really very funny. He's, I mean, he is Jewish from Palestine, but he's got kind of like English style humor, you know, it's, uh, uh, never quite thought of it that way. Well, let me just give the example. I have new appreciation by time. The uk you know, the, the woman, the woman caught sinning, right? Uh, and she's gonna get stoned and Jesus appears on the scene and, you know, goes down like this. He, he says he is like drawing something in the dust. It's the closest thing to writing, Jesus' writing that has ever mentioned. And then he looks up and stands and looks at those guys who are also tense. You know, they, uh, they're about to kill somebody. There's teachers of the law. The law says you're supposed to stone somebody like this, but I doubt that all of them were, you know, patholo, pathological murderers, and they had stones ready. Imagine yourself holding a stone ready to stone somebody. Am I gonna throw the one that misses so mine doesn't do it, or will I just pile on later? All of this is in their heads, and he says, he flips it around. He says, okay, guys. He who was without sin throw the first stone and then you see one after another, dropping those stones and that trembling woman is left alone. And Jesus asks her, who condemned you? And she says, they didn't. I'm alive and I don't condemn you. Just go. That's, that's who we need. Amen. Matthew, please take. So, uh, I'm Matt Holly. I'm from Key Science Michigan. Uh, professor of Ukrainian, SP at Michigan State University at, uh, honor of, uh, being dinner of your house two years ago. So it's good to see you again. I have a question really about. State of higher education more broadly in Ukraine. I've mentioned 3000 buildings destroyed. Thank you. Uh, I spoke to, um, Kyiv University, uh, a couple years ago, and course Kyiv, the students haven't met in person since the full scale invasion and there's been massive underfunding of Ukrainian universities professors being dismissed. So I'm wondering what your vision might be of what we can do from American universities to support higher education in Ukraine and what, uh, KU is doing as a kind of kernel of this network of, uh, universities in Ukraine. Of course, KU has a special status within higher education in Ukraine, but maybe you could speak to the linkages. KU has with other universities in Ukraine. Thank you. The first question you asked is easy to answer. Do what Notre Dame's doing? You know, just, uh, there's, there's been, you know, mod, there's been modeled beautifully. Uh, I think various universities have done great things. Uh, I know Georgetown has, you know, done things. Uh, but I don't want to list them because I think there's, there's, there've been many generous initiatives, but nothing so systemic as Notre Dame has done. Um, KQ University has a fantastic new rector. Um, she's a woman. She comes from a complicated background. Remind me the name of the oligarch who was shot in a hunting accident. From what? Kaus No, no. He, he was, he was, that was a assassination at that, this was, this was a hunting accident. Uh, and, uh, YY uh, yeah, Kro Kro, uh, that's his daughter is Rector, uh, of y and I forgot her name. And, um, she, she's, you know, trying to keep things together. I would say she had the same spirit as Ludmilla with the, you know, big braid, uh, out in the fields of the mic, uh, region. Uh, and you know, I think making a direct connection and say, we wanna help. And you'll see, you know, beautiful conversation will, will emerge. Uh, they are in, in dire straits. I mean, but it's not only universities. You have children. We had two years of COVID and now three years of this war, they've never been in a classroom. Uh, illiteracy is emerging in Ukraine in 1991, Ukrainian literacy was higher than US Literacy. At that time, Ukraine produced the biggest airplane in the world. It had the biggest ballistic missile factory. It had engineers who then, you know, kinda the Germans brain drained, um, during the economic difficulties of the nineties. Uh, but this is a very serious problem and solidarity, uh, heart to heart, person to person, you know, school to school, uh, I think it makes, makes a very big difference. Boice, you just mentioned, uh, children and I think we're coming to. The end of our conversation. Uh, but you mentioned children and I, I wanted to talk to you about, um, my friend Sashko, who's, who's now eight years old. Um, he left Kiev during the first weeks of the full scale invasion. He had endured terrible trauma at that time, and his father took him to, uh, with his sister and, uh, his mother to the border with Slovakia in the middle of the night. And a wonderful Lutheran minister met the family and then brought them to a city called Tia in the center of Slovakia. Um, my dear friend, IOR, his father didn't know exactly where he was, and I, I went to go find them and I was walking down the, the main street in Reia with Sashko. He knows everything about dinosaurs. And so he was telling me absolutely, I mean, really everything about dinosaurs, more than I think some of my colleagues at Cambridge know about dinosaurs. And so I was listening to a lecture from Sashko about dinosaurs, and I was holding his hand. And at a certain moment, um, I was looking this way. He was looking that way, and he drew silent. And again, the lecture was thrilling and I was surprised that he was quiet. And I looked over at him and he had stopped and he had been, he bent over and he was smelling the flowers that were there. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, um, how this child who was six years old at the time, was reminding me how to be present, you know, to take a moment and quite literally, uh, smell the flowers. Um, with his act in mind. I hope that we can all be present to each other, be present to the important work that this conference, um, is, uh, representing. Um, I want to thank you. For as always, making me feel a bit more present to Ukraine and to Ukraine's future to this question of hope. And I'd like to thank all of you for your attention and your questions as could you, could you stay with us if you don't mind? Thank you so much, Rory, for leading us through this wonderful journey of two great minds. Thank you so much, Archbishop Boris, the Archbishop Boris. We had a wonderful prayer in English by Bishop Kevin Rhodes. May I please ask you to say a prayer in Ukrainian? God understands Ukrainian, which may not be the case of all of us here, including myself, that we trust in your relationship with the Lord. You got some singers in there? What's that? We can we sing something? We'll sing a prayer. This is, um, sung in Ukraine after every service. Um, it's a, a prayer for Ukraine, for unity and, and for blessing. And we've got some good singers who sing a lot better than me. And why don't you, does Nish Moses come to the mic and he's, he's a KU graduate. He was a mathematician before he became a theologian, and he is got four kids. Uh, are they all KU students? They were also like, you know, the top students in the, his wife has the language department, so you should do something here and Okay. Can help me. He's also a great singer. Yeah. We do it. If I can ask, we kind of, uh, stand, stand, uh, before the Lord singing this. God bless America. God bless Ukraine. Thank you. Thank. Thank you so much. Dear Archbishop Boris, we have a gift for the Ukrainian Catholic University. We would like to give it to you as the soul animating the body of ku. And please, no worries. We will ship it. It's an icon. It comes with our prayers and the humility of those who know that it is a huge gift to know you and your community. This icon has been painted by Tess Cassidy. Rory, you are tall. Could you please unveil it for fast the you? May I please read the artist's statement from Tess Cassidy? This Byzantine icon has been created using the sacred and time honored techniques passed down through generations. Using fresh eggs, ground pigment, ground marble dust, and 20 4K gold leaf. This icon depicts Jesus and Mary the Theto cos. Similar to many Theto cos icons in Eastern Europe, the elosa, meaning tenderness, are showing mercy is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in icons in which the Christ child is nestled against her cheek. The wooden panel crafted in Kyiv Ukraine carries with it the spirit and resilience of my grandparents' homeland. It's then traveled to me where I painted its surface, layer by layer, prayer by prayer, and wrote the face of Mary and Jesus. Mary is roped in blue, a direct reference to Ukraine. Now it'll return to Ukraine completing a journey that feels profoundly personal and symbolic. As a Ukrainian artist, this commission holds immense significance for me. My grandparents' family remain in Ukraine, and through my work, I feel deeply connected to them and to the enduring strength of our culture in a time of hardship and uncertainty. Art, especially sacred art, becomes a bridge between past and present, between faith and perseverance. This icon is more than a painting. It is a prayer, a testament to tradition, and a symbol of hope. Dear Arch Boris, please accept this icon as an expression of the bound bonds of faith and friendship that unite us. I'm too weak to carry it. You have to be an art specific. Thank you all for your wonderful presence, participation, and to a certain extent, endurance. If you think it was a virtue needed for this evening, there is hope that there will be another day. Tomorrow we'll have an 8:00 AM mass in Stinson Remic Hall, which is just the next building down. If you walk south, south means walking away from the Golden Dome, 8:00 AM mass at 9:00 AM We'll start a conference day with two parallel panel sessions in this building on this floor, our first plenary session. Tomorrow we'll be at 10 45. First plenary session 10 45 featuring or er chu from the Ukrainian Institute, London and Vice President Michael Pippinger, who will engage her in a conversation, a receptionist waiting outside for us with an art exhibition. And as I mentioned, brief artist remarks at seven 30 at 8:00 PM around Grant Mellon colleagues will help gather people for the procession to the grotto for our eight 15 evening prayer. This procession will be led by Father Andre, father Yuri, and Father Yuri. I will now ask Father Chi, where is Father Tim? Here is Father Jim. You are also the celebrant. Tomorrow morning, right here we go. So we'll ask Father Chi to bless the food for us, that you get a sense of his liturgical skills, and then you can walk out and please enjoy the reception and the art the rest of the evening. Thank you. Let's stand together. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly God, we ask your blessings on this gathering. We ask your blessings on the food with which we're about to partake. May nourish us in all the ways that we most need to be to do your will. In our world. We beseech your loving kindness upon the state and the people of Ukraine. We ask for justice in our time, justice and peace. We can't have one without the other. We pray, oh God, that you bring both and bring them quickly. Relieve their suffering. Grant them comfort. And may we, in our way, be a means to their hope and their healing. We ask this through Christ our.