Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine Ivan YURKOVICH: “PEOPLE SHOULD BE GIVEN GUARANTEES OF THE DIGNITY, WHICH THEY WERE ENDOWED WITH BY THE CREATOR”

In thousands years of history of Church the small state of Vatican is not even a hundred years old yet – the Apostle capital celebrated its 80th anniversary last winter.

Present-day Vatican, turning the eyes of its laymen towards tomorrow, often repeats Apostle Pavel`s words: “We are saved in hope”. And explains them: we obtain certain sense in hope. According to the Pope Benedict the Sixth, realization of dreams of Christianity is only possible outside “the prison of “I”, only within the unity called “we”. And if it is true, than our attention should be paid to the fact that in process of development of civilization there appears greater risk because of inadequacy of adoption of moral heritage of humanity by new generations. That is why it is so important to warn the world that “moral growth of humanity is necessary for progress to be real progress”.

Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine Ivan Yurkovich

This thought, as readers will eventually see, became the pivot of our conversation with the Head of Diplomatic Mission of Vatican in Ukraine, Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, His Eminence, Archbishop Ivan YURKOVICH.

— Your Eminence! The 17th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Ukraine and the Apostle Capital has been celebrated lately. How well, do you think, the Apostolic See and Ukraine managed to stick to the course of building of integral European spiritual space on basis of Christian values?

— Each passing year reminds us of the changes, which took place at the end of the last century and changed our continent in the most radical way. I mean not just processes of creation of new states in Central and Eastern parts of Europe, but, first of all, complete change of general atmosphere, opening of new horizons and further appearance of new social and cultural achievements.

In this regard, we should first of all remember the importance of recognition of religious freedom, which is part of values that are connected with human dignity in their essence. A human being, created according to God`s image, must be respected in his spiritual sphere. That is why for two thousand years Christians heroically defended this condition, necessary for professing their own faith.

Atmosphere of freedom enabled new achievements in activity of churches and other religious organizations. Thanks to that, conditions were created for churches to play their due part in social and personal life of believers. The progress, achieved in this sphere, is really amazing. Guests, who visit Ukraine nowadays, are surprised with liveliness of local religious life, presence of deep religious feeling in people. One is also amazed by general openness to spiritual values, which is more noticeable in Eastern, than in Western parts of European continent today. It regards all churches, but, of course, in particular, Orthodox ones, which form the majority in your country. But Catholic Church has also managed to realize many initiatives here through years to provide all believers with the Pastor`s guardianship. Presence of diplomatic representative office of the Holy See, which fulfills its duties before state power in functioning of Catholic Church and in encouraging of ecumenical dialog between churches, is one of displays of this phenomenon.

You have also mentioned building of “integral spiritual space on basis of Christian values”. We are speaking about the “project” that becomes more and more important for European future. There is a belief in necessity of keeping “Christian character” of our continent between European churches. First of all, it should be mentioned that this character has always existed and keeps existing. But challenges of modern world demand new decisions from the Church, new impact to share its own spiritual beliefs with others, offering traditional Evangelic values with a new fresh look. It is necessary to be done in new social context, part of which is formed by people with different religious views and many of those, who has not opened importance of spiritual dimension, but are worried about destiny of the humanity. The Church must get in contact with all of them, offering results of its reflection and recent evidence of living faith.

Evidently, we are talking about a huge task now. Some people consider it one of the grandest projects in history of the Church. The Pope John Paul 2 defined it with the term “new evangelization”. Although someone took it absolutely incorrectly – as expansion at the expense of others. But the main idea is in attracting attention to Evangelic values in life of peoples, which demands efforts of all churches, including ones of Eastern Europe.

— Staying in Sevastopol, you mentioned: “We are connected by mutual background. We are talking about integral future of the world and especially Europe”. Mr. Ambassador, could you give examples and symbols of our connection from Ukrainian practice?

— View of the Church on history corresponds to its own nature and spiritual mission in the world. That`s why in its vision the Church always tries to emphasize what is common for all people, what unites us. Such view does not mean denying validity of other visions, which are more tightly connected with certain conditions, national interests and geopolitical vision. As known, for several centuries history of our continent developed around the conception of national state, which paid more attention to peculiarities of everybody, than to general things. On the other hand, this historic process revealed great variety of traditions of European Peoples, their special cultural heritage, language diversity, etc. But simultaneously with this process there always has been another one, which concerned common for us questions. During the last decade we have become witnesses of the unique process of European integration – phenomenon, born from necessity to stop partition of our continent that caused too much suffering.

The Church takes active part in these processes, inspires and evaluates them. At the same time, The Church’s vision remains wider and beyond political models that appear in history. The church has oecumenical mission, which origins from its spiritual nature, which means its horizons are always broader, than narrow natural views or ideological schemes. The process of convergence of churches is especially important, ecumenical dialogue, directed at overcoming of separation, which divided Christianity into different churches, confessions, church communities through centuries. Partition of the Christ`s Church is the biggest tragedy, which affected Christian world and had very negative consequences for its functioning, substantially restricting ability of the Church to spread its Christian values.

In this perspective, importance of the potential that could appear due to dialog between churches of Western and Eastern Europe, especially with the Slavic East, seems evident. This concerns peoples, who built their national identity on Evangelic values, who left great treasures of sanctity, theological thoughts and cultural achievements, following their own Christian tradition. Special place among these nations is taken by Ukrainian Nation, which considering even its geographical position, should play the role of promoter of dialogue and mutual understanding between European West and East. Ukraine has always been characterized by this geographical and historical condition and I believe it will remain addicted to its mission.

— What role in your diplomatic mission in Ukraine belongs to the fact that relics of the Pope Saint Clement lie in the Orthodox Kiev Pechersk Lavra?

— Two facts give evidence of the special disposition of Ukraine, which I have just mentioned: two Popes died on its territory. These are the Pope Clement of Rome (1st century) and Pope Martin (7th century). Of course, this fact gives special nuances to stay of the Diplomatic Mission of the Apostolic See in Kiev: Apostolic Nunciate feels in a way “under protection” of these Saints, especially of Saint Clement, whose relics are buried in Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

It is very remarkable that our Embassy in Ukraine, that is Nunciate, promoted foundation of the Saint Clement Center, which was opened by His Eminence cardinal Walter Kasper in December of 2007 and received blessing of the Bishop of Poltava of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Philip. Work of the center aims uniting different people, who lead vivid activity in sphere of cultural, religious and ecumenical dialogue. Personally I often say that, according to my own belief, guests of Kiev should be told more about this extremely important moment among other historical factors: that they are in the capital of relics of the fourth Pope. The approaching European Championship in Football provides a great chance for that. Numerous tourists are expected to visit Ukraine on this occasion. And, in general, all guests, arriving at Kiev, will visit Lavra as well.

This fact also gives evidence of uniqueness of Kiev and that for centuries Ukraine has been a privileged place of meeting of different cultures and different Christian traditions.

— Should opening of its own channel on Internet site be taken as Vatican`s deep immersion into innovative informational politics? And what does the Apostolic Nuncio appeal to Ukrainian people with? What thoughts and suggestions bring Ukrainians to the Embassy of Vatican in Kiev?

— It is true. The fact that Vatican opened its channel on YouTube – the powerful resource with open access – attracted much attention. From now on it offers short video news on the Pope`s activity and important events in Vatican`s life. We hope YouTube will broaden its opportunities soon. These are all examples of functioning of the Church in the sphere of new technologies. Its aim is establishing relations with global public, despite national or cultural borders. The new informational channel will help to establish new relations with all Catholics all over the world. In such way they will get access to updated information about events in life of the Church. The information will also be accessible to people of other religious views. In other words, everyone, who wishes, now has trustworthy source of information from Vatican. It will help people to better understand messages, which the Pope addresses them with.

On the occasion of the World Day of Press, the Pope Benedict the 7th stated that new technologies from internet in pocket PC to sites of networking have huge potential if they are used with understanding and human solidarity. The Pontiff considers new technologies a “real gift for humanity”. However the Pope mentions that advantages of new technologies must serve “all people and all societies, but first of all, those, who needs it more and is less protected”. All this gives evidence that appearance of new digital networks, which try to encourage human solidarity, peace and justice, human rights, respect for life and well-being of all creatures, represent new forms of cooperation between peoples of different geographical and cultural contexts. The Church intends to do everything to make digital world accessible to everyone. Future of humanity will be greatly damaged if new means of communication are not available for those, who are already in economical and social low layers of society or if these means become reasons for increasing of the abyss, separating poor people from access to informational services.

Apostolic Nunciate also uses new means of Internet to represent new information about itself to Ukrainian society. There is a web site nuntiatura.kiev.ua, containing important information about out activity. At the same time, the Nunciate actively uses in its work some Internet resources of Catholic Church in Ukraine.

— Although it is rather indefinite, but there is opinion in the world about Vatican`s expansion to Ukraine, that Ukraine is a big attraction to Vatican. The aim is change of faith. How would you comment such statements?

— Catholic Church is a big organization, which is why its activity has always attracted and keeps attracting attention of the world community. Historical difficulties and problems, which arose between different Christian confessions, are also well-known. Eventually many contradictory matters were solved positively. But the truth is that heritage of those negative feelings is still alive, not in the last turn due to critical comments about the Church, Vatican, etc.   

Ukraine is an important state for the Holy See, since many Catholics live here, of both Byzantine and Latin Rite. If we make certain calculations, it will turn out that there are more Catholics in Ukraine, than in all former Soviet Union (except for Baltic countries). Although, of course, Catholics are in minority among believers in Ukraine. Despite that, we are talking about rather substantial social group: it forms over 10% of the whole population. Besides, Catholic Church in Ukraine plays an important social role. Sometimes there is an impression that critic, that you have mentioned, does not coincide with the real situation, but often repeats phrases, unsuccessfully imported from other historical or geographical contexts.

As it has been mentioned above, Ukrainian potential in the sphere of development of ecumenical dialogue is not less important in this regard. Your county will always remain in close contact with other European countries, so it should encourage public and cultural exchange with both Western and Eastern parts of Europe. Consequently, it will become a privileged and open for religious dialogue place. I believe, everyone has been assured of that and the main thing is that Ukrainian people realizes its role.

— Meanwhile, it is known that the Archbishop of Berlin and the whole Germany Mark of the foreign Orthodox Church, for example, is firmly against possible visit of the Pope Benedict the 7th to Ukraine – there is “state of war” between believers of different confessions as it is. At the same time, authoritative Catholic delegation, which visited Lvov and met Ukrainian President there last autumn, noted positive efforts of Ukraine, regarding inter-confessional dialogue in the state. What is hidden behind this ambiguous interpretation of situation in Ukraine?

— I`m not aware of the statements of this Hierarch of the Orthodox Church, which you are talking about. However, looks like it concerns evaluations of similar subjects, which have arisen, concerning difficulties of ecumenical dialogue in Ukraine.

We all realize pretty well to what extent current situation depends on suffering and injustice, survived in the past. All these factors have decreased mutual trust, complicating progress in bilateral relations.

It is the same difficult to estimate progress, reached during this period. Some people consider this progress substantial, others – on the contrary, less positive.

In any case, the Churches are already consolidated and feel more confident. Mutual politeness and respect can be felt in dialogue between the two Churches. Besides, feeling of responsibility for general Ukrainian destiny can be heard in statements of High Hierarchs. All these can be a sign of the fact, that despite all difficulties we are moving forward. No one has illusions that this way is easy, but everybody equally understands that it should be continued in future.

Convergence of Churches is a church process and it must develop, first of all, in religious surrounding. Ecumenical dialogue is a spiritual process, which must always be supported by theological dialogue and establishment of fraternity.

Religious dialogue also has its social dimension. Members of both our Churches live in the same society, sharing the same destiny, often get married and create mixed families. It is not hard to understand how painful for such people is to see complicated relations between the Churches. It concerns other members of the society to a certain extent: everybody wants to live in a united, but not separated country. It is easy to understand efforts of the Authorities, who strive to solve certain confessional conflicts. Sometimes their vision is even more optimistic than views of religious leaders. So it is important that everyone keeps within borders of their competence and try to contribute to common unity as much as possible.

— Memorizing victims of Holodomor in Ukraine on the days of the 75th anniversary of the “great hunger” on St. Peter`s Square in Vatican the Pope Benedict the 6th said, in particular: “No political system can deny human rights, freedom and dignity for ideological reasons”. You – officiating priests – are citizens of the world. So could you, Mr. Ambassador of the only religious state in the world share your own opinion without unnecessary diplomatic modesty: are human rights and freedoms, mentioned by the Pontiff, observed in Ukraine?

— Tragedy of Holodomor – is one of the biggest cataclysms of the humanity. Probably, it will remain the darkest period in history of Ukraine forever. Personally I remember my father`s stories about the book, published in Slovenia in the 30th years of the last century entitled “Ukraine is crying”. The Ukrainian tragedy was well-known in many European countries, while in their own country people had to leave for many decades to reveal the truth about this historic period and speak up about it.

The most terrible aspect of Holodomor is in the fact that it became consequence of terror over human consciousness and turned out to be the means of forcing people to change their political beliefs and repudiate freedom of conscience.

Today Ukraine is a free state. When it comes to estimating “level of freedom”, many criterion can be used, many of which were suggested by international organizations. But freedom is a substance, which is perceived, it cannot be simulated. We all know and feel deep inside our souls when we are free and when we depend on others: on power of authorities, on strong economic influence, on groups of political pressure.

The Holy See believes in necessity of guarantying people the dignity, which they were endowed with by the Creator. This condition is of particular value especially in the spiritual sphere of human life. At all times the task of churches was to protect immunity of this human asset, which encourages development of maturity and spiritual growth. In modern world states are under obligation to respect this sphere of human life. And not only by passing national laws, but also by joining different world legal agreements. It is known that in this regard Ukraine belongs to countries that keep to international obligations.

— How real and convincing is Vatican`s desire to fix obligation of citizens of European Union to have rest on Sunday legislatively? And what about Ukraine, striving to join European Union, if most of its citizens can hardly make ends meet due to making some money on the side at their free time on days off?

— Let me remind you: rest on Sunday was inherited by Christianity from Judaism and its tradition to rest on Sabbath Day. It fact, it meant abstaining from work and everyday duties to completely devote oneself to internal life, renewal of relationship with God. In the 6th century Imperator Konstantin passed a decree about the rules of Sunday, which remains church direction till now.

Industrialization and urbanization of the last century changed many aspects of life of people, among which there is rest on Sunday. Spreading of consumerism led to the fact that it became necessary to offer services and goods for sale every minute. We all realize what negative influence this step made on our everyday life. Rest of the seventh day, which is supposed to be a special moment of dedicating oneself to the highest sphere of his life, praying and personal reflections,   became just ordinary “free time” for us. It is taken not as time for religious or state holidays, but just as free and leisure time. Almost in all countries we can observe postponing holidays to such days as Mondays, aimed just to prolong free time. In other words, there is no longer difference between observance, which is part of civil and spiritual breeding and just entertainment, limited by rest and leisure time.

This mess in concepts caused many negative consequences in social life. In the framework of exclusively consumer mentality, it is much more difficult to persuade people to spend their time at common celebration of certain outstanding events or historical facts. That is why there is big responsibility of state and educational system to teach people to take social responsibility: it is impossible to create political and social values if we personally do not make any efforts towards our own growth.

The same things concern care about spiritual life. It demands great attention from each of us. It requires hard work, which is often neglected by the society. At the same time, mentality of consumption and permanent expenses is not justifiably encouraged. That is why the churches stand up for preserving certain time period to enable people live life of full value. However, in this case it concerns severe struggle, considering at least the fact that there are very few social organisms, willing to participate in it. However, don`t forget that there are examples when some countries succeeded in defending traditional Christian values. For example, I have always been impressed by the fact that shops are always closed on Sundays in Bavaria. This probably the richest region in Europe managed to defend values of Christian civilization.

I don`t know what forthcoming times are bringing us. But for certain: it is the duty of all Christians to stay faithful to the Gospel`s Doctrine, giving evidence of their spiritual values by their own life in various social and cultural contexts, defending human spiritual mission.

— Over 200 years ago, counselor of John Paul 2 in matters of theology and now the Pope Benedict the 6th prophetically predicted the current world financial crisis. He warned that damage made by market players of low moral qualities, their moral indiscipline might appear destructive for the whole system. What do you think, considering above mentioned – how long will it take the whole world and Ukraine, in particular, to get over the crisis?

— Statements of the Church in social matters are connected with its moral doctrine. There are several articles, dedicated to the subject “Economical institutions at people`s service” in the Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church, published in Ukrainian in 2008. The following is emphasized particularly: “Free market cannot find ground of its legality inside it; identification of right means and aims ratio is a matter of human conscience and social responsibility. Individual income of an economic subject is legal aim, but it can never be the only one. There is another one, the same fundamental, but of higher level: social benefit, which should be reached not contrary to logic of the market, but in accordance with it. Solving important problems, free market serves mutual benefit and integral development of people. At the same time, violation of correct correlation between means and aims causes degeneration of the market and its transformation to inhuman and alienating institution causes uncontrolled consequences. Recognizing the market as indispensable instrument of internal regulation of economic system, the Church doctrine emphasizes necessity to dedicate it to moral goals, which would ensure and, at the same time, restrict the space of its autonomy”.

These words practically signify current situation. The Church has always performed its prophetical mission of declaring Evangelic truth. Unfortunately, humanity is ready to listen to this voice only at times when shadows of crisis and suffering appear on the horizon. In the epoch of abundance people easily get into euphoria, losing the feeling of real life and crisis always starts suddenly, becoming big shock.

Financial crisis, which humanity is going through now, is occurrence that we cannot estimate to full extent. We don`t know yet how long it will last and what its social consequences will be like. Functioning of the Catholic Church – social, educational, medical – is maintained mainly due to generosity of believers. If they have to go through the period of financial crisis, it means the Church will meet the same difficulties. Unfortunately, there will be less means, while needs will increase. No one knows how many people will appear in situation of risk. So we all should take future events with big responsibility and be ready to take any measures to ease distress of poor and marginal layers of society.

At this difficult time it is very important for the Church to remain the source of hope. Mission of the Church has spiritual character and its message is the message of hope. We should be especially careful and encourage spreading of spirit of genuine Christian solidarity, established in Evangelic message of love to everybody. The whole society reasonably expects it from us.

— Vatican became 187th member of Interpol not long ago. Certain political decision or world vision sign must be behind it, since only 460 people live in the public eye?

— The state-city Vatican, despite its humble number of population, tries to become a member of programs of international cooperation, including programs of common security. Regarding your question, I would say that cooperation with Interpol meets two demands. The first one is demand for security of our own territory for the reason of increasing number of people, travelling through it. It is enough to remind of Museums of Vatican or St. Peter`s Cathedral. According to some calculations, in the jubilee 2000 over 20 million pilgrims visited Rome. Museums of Vatican are the most visited in Italy; they accept millions of guests every year.

Another reason that forced Vatican to make this step is the fact that Interpol tries to encourage cooperation between different national polices, for example, through informational exchange, etc. This is certain form of solidarity that the clause 2 of the Statutes of Interpol calls for. Due to it many countries try to find answers to bothering questions: security and stability. In spite of our understanding that Vatican is not capable to contribute much to this international organization, however, it wants to demonstrate its respect for these international efforts.

— How did Vatican celebrate the 80th anniversary of its foundation as an independent sovereign state?

— That`s right, our state celebrated its 80th anniversary last year. Founded on February 11, 1929, Vatican has not celebrated a century of its history yet, although the Church itself has entered the third millennium of its existence.

Aspiration to guaranty sovereignty for activity of the Church was the main idea, which inspired the Pope Piy 11 to found an independent state. Protecting freedom of the Church was the most important task for that moment. Today we know how prophetical the following things turned out: just a few years later there appeared ideological aggression, which eventually caused physical aggression – the catastrophe of the World War Two.

Celebration of the 80th anniversary of Vatican went on under the slogan: “Small territory for big mission”. Various thematic exhibitions, scientific conferences, concerts were organized. Release of stamps and coins will be especially rich this year.

At the same time, it is a well-known fact that other important for history anniversaries were celebrated in 2009: 400th anniversary of the first astronomic observations of Galileo Galilei with assistance of a telescope, 500th anniversary of the fresco “Dispute of the Saint Sacrament” by Rafael in the Apostolic Palace, 200th anniversary of birthday of the creator of Braille Luis Braille, 50th anniversary of calling of the 2 Vatican Council. In a word, Vatican`s celebrations were held in the framework of festivals, run on other significant occasions. Let it be a little appeal for all of us to treat our own existence on the Earth with great responsibility and discretion and, at the same time, with spirit of humility and modesty, which have always been peculiar to life of Christians.

Media Center of “Prime Excursion Bureau”.

December 2010.