Fr. Yuriy Shchurko, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University, considers the moral and spiritual dimensions of Ukraine’s fight for peace.
Fr. Yuriy Shchurko is the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Theology at Ukrainian Catholic University, a professor, an author and a biblical scholar. He also created a website, “Zhyty Slovom” (To Live by the Word: https://zhyty-slovom.com), as a resource for biblical studies and spiritual growth. He began the site as a way to maintain his own personal spiritual life and to share his insights and guidance with other people of faith.
In his work at UCU, he has been part of the flourishing partnership between UCU and Notre Dame University. Last year, as a visiting scholar at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Institute for Social Concerns at Notre Dame, he taught the course, Just Peace: A Case Study on Ukraine. That interdisciplinary course was based on materials used for the book on the concept of just peace that Fr. Shchurko is writing. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on the nature of just peace, hope for Ukraine, and the beauty of God’s plan for Earth.
What is a just peace?
A just peace is a kind of reflection of God’s order, because peace is always a result of justice, and peace is always connected with the truth. In biblical narratives, these three always come together: justice, peace, and truth.
Ukraine has never experienced a just peace. Ukraine has had periods of peace, but we cannot call them just peace. Some people in the West, especially when they are trying to help Ukraine in this disaster, mistakenly speak about appeasement, but appeasement is not a just peace. Just peace is a relationship that presupposes trust and respect. It’s not formal peace, it’s not appeasement, it’s not minimal peace. It’s a result of justice. We are searching for this peace throughout the history of Ukraine.
All humanity is created for peace. In the first two chapters of the Bible in the book of Genesis, you will find a beautiful description of the created order. And even if you do not find the precise word peace, you can summarize the state of created order as peace.
Then, when you look at the last two chapters of the Bible in the book of Revelation, you will see a restoration of that peace. The Heaven and Earth as God created them are now restored as a new Heaven and a new Earth.
What do people need to know about peace in Ukraine?
Unfortunately, Ukraine has had many difficult pages of its history, sometimes so dangerous that we could have been erased from the map as a nation. As the author Timothy Snyder wrote in his book, “Bloodlands,” between the First and Second World Wars, the territory of Ukraine was the most dangerous place on Earth to live. The average person’s life lasted just 18 years.
I want to show the connection between the search and a longing for peace within Ukrainian history. I present four different periods of Ukrainian history when we could have – mostly through Russia’s genocidal action – disappeared as a nation. I also show that the peaceful periods did not occur without occupation. However, at least those periods were a time when our culture, our national identity, could flourish, develop, and be fruitful.
The West, which hasn’t experienced war and violence and cruelty on such a scale for 80 years, is not able to understand the highest level of risk we are facing here in Ukraine. We just have to admit there are powers in the world inspired by a dictatorial regime.
What would a just peace in Ukraine mean?
Unfortunately, we have Putin, and many Putins in our world. We have a dictatorship in China. We have North Korea, and we have Russia. We had the so-called Nuremberg process for the crimes of Nazi Germany, but, unfortunately, we don’t have any Nuremberg process on the crimes of the communist Russian Federation.
And when I am speaking about the result of just peace as political reconciliation, it presupposes that the government in Russia should become democratic, and they have to admit their guilt and their crimes. Then they have to be punished, and reparations should be estimated by international commissions.
Do you see any signs of hope for a just peace right now in the world or in Ukraine?
Christians are always people of hope. We mention it every single day, that we expect eternal life. Why? Because we believe that God is not only our creator, but He’s our redeemer and He’s responsible for His creation, for me and you. So He will restore his order.
And in this story, there is no place for the victory of Putin. So we believe that we are called – it is the honor of our generation – to finish the history of the dictatorship of the Russian Federation. I wouldn’t want us to be the generation of people who left it to our kids to shoulder; we have to accept this challenge, and we have to finish this story.
It’s challenging because every single day we are facing very painful things, but as a Christian, I ask myself, “Is it ever in vain?” I hope not.
As I already said, fortunately, we do not have a choice, you know, because if the choice to submit is to be killed, eliminated, then it means that we have to fight. If God allowed it, if He permitted this, then I believe He did it with a purpose. I believe that evil will never prevail. It’s impossible. It’s illogical. God is created with a beautiful purpose. And as I already stated, we see at the beginning of the Bible, Heaven and Earth, and at the end of the Bible, a new Heaven and Earth. And you and me, in the middle of the story, we are part of the story, but we can be active members of the story. God called Ukrainians to participate in His project of restoring the world.
