Head of UGCC points to positive asceticism for harmonious development of society

“Our society today has, in addition to many flaws, many wonderful things that we do not know about. For harmonious development we need to be aware of our negatives, or those social evils which we speak of. But at the same time we need to discover the huge unique potential, which is in our society, and develop it,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav, head of the UGCC, in an interview to the newspaper Den. This opinion the head of the UGCC expressed when he was asked about how to overcome moral evil in society. According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, negative asceticism, which provides is used to overcome defects, is not effective and efficient. “Asceticism in the Christian tradition is divided into negative and positive. Negative asceticism is when we try to deal with one of our flaws, such as laziness: I have to work to overcome this laziness... And positive asceticism is having certain traits, which would be contrary to the defects that exasperate me: if I see that I am lazy, I must educate myself in hard work. And when I work, I will focus on what I need to gain, while the disease itself will slowly disappear,” said the head of the UGCC. According to the church head, Christians often see only the bad sides of themselves. And if the spiritual leader can show people all the beauty and value of their capabilities and strengthen them, then people will be more successful in overcoming their shortcomings. His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes it is possible to do this in our society. “So I think this positive asceticism, even in society, can be much more successful than the negative one,” said the Primate in the interview.  

UGCC Information Department