Head of UGCC holds open lecture ‘Ethics of Virtue and Eastern Christianity’ at Thomas Aquinas Institute in Kyiv

Recently, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk), head of the UGCC, held an open lecture, “Ethics of Virtue and Eastern Christianity” at the Institute Thomas Aquinas in Kyiv. At the beginning a Latin Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson, Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, in concelebration with the UGCC Primate and Roman and Greek Catholic clergy, the website of Kyiv Three Saints Theological Seminary reports. At the beginning of the lecture, the head of the UGCC expressed joy that he could be at the institute, which is a branch of the Angelicum Pontifical University. His Beatitude Sviatoslav studied in the above institution in Italy, where he obtained a licentiate and later his doctorate summa cum laude in theological anthropology based on the Byzantine moral and theological tradition. “All that I will say, I learned among the Dominicans. I will return the debt. In our church ends the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, so I am happy that we can celebrate the Eucharist with our Western brothers, which is a testament of this unity,” said the head of the UGCC. “Speaking of virtue, we find a certain terminological barrier that exists in the Ukrainian language in the definition of the term ‘virtue,’” said the patriarch. “The same difficulty exists in the interpretation of virtues in moral theology. Translated from Greek, ‘virtue’ means ‘to adapt someone to something, to form.’” In addition, the head of the UGCC drew the attention of the participants to the history of the development of theology of the virtues and certain commonalities and differences in the interpretation of this concept by Western and Eastern Fathers: “The former write: ‘Virtue is the opportunity and ability, inherent in the human soul, to reach perfection, which comes through the strength God.’ Origen says: ‘Christ is the virtuous, fullness of God’s strength. We gain these attributes of God to as we become more virtuous.’ The idea of perfection is the same, only different interpretations of the perfection.” At the end of the lecture, the patriarch concluded that “theology is the great treasure of Christian wisdom, and the task of the modern theologian is to understand and draw from the theology of the virtues of the church and help others understand them.” It should be noted that the open lecture was attended by brothers of the Kyiv Three Saints Theological Seminary with Rector Fr. Petro Zhuk, Vice Rector Fr. Andrii Chornenko, and Myronosytsa sisters.  

UGCC Information Department