Archbishop Borys Gudziak, President of the Ukrainian Catholic University, recently gave an interview to The Ukrainians website. Translated excerpts from the interview follow.
[The Ukrainians] Can we speak of freedom as a process, a permanent thing which we have to strive for every day?
[Archbishop Gudziak] It must be worked on. I am deeply convinced that freedom is impossible without God’s blessing and the network of relations of people who support us. This is like a sport. A trainer and friends on the team are needed, who say: “Wait. You’re doing something wrong.: Sometimes with a smile, but sometimes fairly sharply.
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[Archbishop Gudziak] I want to give an example from “politically correct” America. I grew up here, went to school, graduated from university, and returned here a year and a half ago, after 30 years of living in Europe.
Now I notice that some words are considered “not politically correct.” For example, “sin” or “you are mistaken,” any indication of truth or untruth. There’s a nice, satirical video about a teacher who is fired because she criticized a student who said 2+2=5. We live in a time of the dictatorship of subjectivism… This also means that we are losing the ability to call things by their names.
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[Archbishop Gudziak] I am far from a nostalgic person, who maintains that once things were good, but now everything is falling apart… It’s necessary to live here and now. And this time has its own great pluses. For example, in America it is very important that, for the first time in 150 years, again the question of racial equality is posed. Who if not Ukrainian should understand that this is a trauma across generations, practically genocidal, which Afro-Americans carry.
This does not justify every act, but it is a fact that the playing field remains unequal… The events of recent months showed this. On the other hand, there are many who manipulate this.
