Soviet influence still haunts Ukraine, cardinal says
August 13, 2015
The Church in Ukraine is still battling with the legacy of the Soviet era, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar told Aid to the Church in Need.
Older period have difficulty breaking the habits of thought formed by decades under Communism, the cardinal said. Young people, on the other hand, have trouble finding an alternative model for society. Cardinal Husar observed that “Western Europe is also no ideal model… These is much that is good, but there is also moral liberalism.”
(Cardinal Husar served as Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church from 2001 until his retirement in 2011. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II in 2001.)
Because many Ukrainians feel an emptiness in their lives, some Church leaders find that work with those in need helps to open up new models of society. Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia has set up a center that offers care and counselling for addicts, alcoholics, and others. “So many young people came to our soup kitchens,” he said, “but too many of them are ruined.” The new center seeks to help young people overcome addictions.
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