“People who suffered for the truth are ready for mutual understanding”
29.10.2007, [16:12] // Kaleidoscope //
European Justice and Peace Commissions Hold Conference in Kyiv
Kyiv-Chernobyl— Representatives of 30 countries of Europe participated in the General Assembly of the Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions (CEJPC) dedicated to the following subject, “On the way to reconciliation and agreement: To learn from Ukraine’s experience,” which was held in Kyiv from 21 to 25 September 2007. During the first three days, the participants of the forum held four study sessions, where they became acquainted with the historical past of Ukraine in the 20th century and learned about the horrors of Babyn Yar , Bykivnia, and the Communist and Nazi terrors. They held a prayer for peace and security in Europe in the town of Prypiat near the Chornobyl atomic power station. Find more details in a special report by RISU director Taras Antoshevskyy.
“When we talk about reconciliation, I, as a German, feel ashamed. I know how much pain our country inflicted on yours. But on the other hand, we would like to start a dialogue and see how much progress we can make in this matter of reconciliation. And, of course, it is a spiritual process,” said the president of the CEJPC, Bishop Leo Schwarz from Germany, during an UNIAN press-conference on 21 September, before the start of the assembly. “We are very pleased to have a chance to participate in joint prayer. We are all united in prayer. We need that in order to form the future together. Even more so, as Ukraine currently is experiencing an extremely important time when decisions are to be made which will determine the fate of your country.”
Special parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 30 September.
“We have come to Ukraine first of all to learn from your experience, your history, ways of achieving reconciliation,” said the secretary general of the CEJPC, Jorg Luer. He also stressed that the general assembly was being held for the first time in a post-Soviet country. “The dialogue conducted by us in Europe is extremely important for us and our partners in order to find things in common and improve our cooperation. It is an attempt to understand each other, to make easier our unification in Europe.” According to Luer, the program of the conference included various events which would allow the participants to become acquainted with the tragic past of Ukraine in the 20th century. He said they also would like to express their solidarity with people working to solve the important problem of divisions in Ukrainian society.
According to the head of the Committee on Union between Christians of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and a co-organizer of the assembly, Ihor Shaban, it is “one of the few opportunities for Christians to meet and show the level of dialogue and good relations between churches in Ukraine.” He said that members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations were invited for joint prayer. The prayer took place in the town of Prypiat, a “symbolic place, where no one lives at present and where not a single church ever existed or was planned to be built.” The town was founded in 1970 and ceased to exist after the atomic disaster at Chornobyl. Unfortunately, according to Shaban, the joint prayer will be silent, as Christians of Ukraine “are not yet able to pray together, however sad that may be.”
The organizers do not expect that the forum will significantly improve the work of reconciliation in Ukraine, but, being religious people, they leave room for a miracle. In particular, after similar sessions, positive changes were made in interdenominational relations in Bosnia and Northern Ireland. When asked by journalists what Western Europeans can gain from such a meeting, Jorg Luer answered that it is very interesting for them to understand how Ukrainians managed to carry Christian values through such harsh years of totalitarianism. He expressed certainty that the meeting, attended by representatives of 30 European countries, will facilitate the integration of Ukraine into the European community.
On the first day of the assembly, reports were made by Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak and former dissidents Myroslav Marynovych and Yevhen Sverstiuk. The subject of the session was “The influence of the Soviet experience on Ukraine today, or why diversity can be dangerous.”
The main attention of the participants of the session, according to Luer, was focused on the meetings (2nd session: “To tell the truth, or difficulties in overcoming ignorance and propaganda”). They were divided into four groups. They visited Babyn Yar and Bykivnia and, later each group had two other meetings. In particular, they visited the Institute of Judaic Studies, Institute of National Memory, the Memorial organization, and met with Crimean Tatars, veterans of the Red Army and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA), former political prisoners, survivors of the Holodomor (man-made famine) and Holocaust, and historians studying the man-made famine and repressions.
Having returned from the meetings, the participants of the assembly analyzed them in their groups and shared their impressions of what they saw with colleagues from other groups. In general, the atmosphere was quite sad. Many were deeply shocked after interacting with the survivors of the man-made famine and people who as little children survived the extermination of the Jews in World War II. The foreign guests were also shocked by the conditions, in which persons who once fought for the independence of Ukraine and went through repressions now live. They noted that near the monument to child-victims of the Holocaust in Babyn Yar loud music is played and alcohol is drunk.
The thought was often expressed: How to make history speak? On one hand, there is a need for monuments which would speak to descendants; on the other hand, the state is to support the study of the past and promote reconciliation. However, as was noted, at present the truth of the past is not reaching the people, as the politicians, who divide society the most, are against it.
It was noted that much is being done already to familiarize youth with the tragic past, but much is still to be done, because communist myths about the tragic historic past are very deeply rooted in the younger generations.
After meetings with representatives of “living history,” the participants of the session stated that the victims of the regimes are prepared for reconciliation, but not all and not with everyone. In particular, the members of the UIA are not willing to reconcile with their torturers from the NKVD-KGB. As Bishop Schwarz noted, much work is required for reconciliation and perhaps the establishment of a special committee. It was also noted that Christian love is to be the firm foundation for reconciliation.
As the director of the Justice and Peace Committee of the UGCC, Lesia Kovalenko noted, during the day of active communication and study, the foreign guests learned much more truth than many of Ukrainians. “People who suffered for the truth are ready for mutual understanding,” she said.
On the same day, the participants of the assembly participated in a pontifical Liturgy celebrated in the Church of St. Basil by the head of the UGCC, Patriarch Lubomyr (Husar), jointly with the papal nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, Bishop Schwarz, Czech Bishop Vaclav Maly, and local and visiting priests. In the evening, the patriarch gave a lecture as part of the third session “The Church and burdens of the Soviet past: Challenges and contributions to post-Soviet society.”
Patriarch Lubomyr began his speech with the thought that, having received only a seminary education, Stalin created a pseudo religion. And that all his activity should be viewed through that prism. He introduced state rituals which imitated religious ones in many respects. He struggled against belief in God and replaced it with the religion of a small god, Lenin. Also, his own morality, which contradicted the human one, was established. It all led to the creation of “homo soveticus,” a new man with a new worldview. Man was not a person any more and could exist only in community.
As a result, two serious wounds were inflicted on Ukrainian society: lack of responsibility and lack of trust between people. To overcome the consequences of such a condition, the church should first of all turn its face to youth, Patriarch Lubomyr said. The UGCC conducted three studies of the spiritual world of youth and came to the conclusion that youth search for God and authority, each in his own way. However, many are under the influence of a materialistic worldview according to which money is at the top of everything. The church is viewed by many as an institution, a structure with human errors. Therefore, one is to let the young person understand that the church is, first of all, a community of believers. The head of the UGCC stressed that we should prove this “by the example of our life.” Our response to what happened, to the ruin caused by the Communist regime, is for the church to be a community of faith consisting of people who really believe and live by that faith. If we manage, with God’s help, to construct our communities, our church, in that way, we can really view the overcoming of those wounds of the past with great hope.
After his speech, Patriarch Lubomyr answered numerous questions concerning both the past and the present of Ukraine, particularly political matters.
On the third day, Sunday 23 September, a trip was organized to the Chornobyl zone. First, the participants of the assembly visited the Church of St. Elias of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in the town of Chornobyl. According to the pastor, Fr. Mykolai, it was restored in 2003 and is currently under repair, whereas two other Orthodox churches in Chornobyl are in ruin. Approximately 70 families live here today and about 3000 others come here as sentries. The town gives the impression that the Soviet Union still exists there: attributes of its propaganda are still there, including a monument to Lenin and Soviet symbols. Many houses are empty and overgrown with trees. Most of the residents are older people. The women who came to the church to meet the guests said they are alright there, that the air is clean, that they live by cultivating the land and are reluctant to move. In his address to the guests, Fr. Mykolai said that the trouble in this land “is gradually vanishing with God’s help. People understand that there is God, who will help us to overcome it.” At the initiative of Bishop Schwarz, representatives of various denominations prayed in silence for the revival of this land. After that, the guests communicated with the local people.
The next stop was the monument “To those who saved the world,” erected at the edge of Chornobyl on the way to the atomic power station. Later, the participants of the assembly and journalists visited the station itself. The main stop was in the town of Prypiat, which has been uninhabited for a long time. It is overgrown with the green of trees, bushes and grass. Many symbols of the Soviet age are still there, as well. The participants of the meeting heard a story of the heroism of the liquidators of the fire in 1986. After that, the participants, clergy of the UOC MP, Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, UGCC, Roman Catholic Church, Jews and Muslims “prayed in silence” for about 10 minutes for peace and security in Ukraine and Europe. The silence was interrupted only by birds, insects and the instrument measuring the radiation level, which indicated that the level was a few times higher than in Kyiv, but far from lethal. However, according to the experts, it is not advisable to stay in that abandoned place for a long time.
After visiting the Chornobyl zone, the participants of the assembly participated in a Liturgy celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Alexander in Kyiv by the nuncio, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, jointly with Roman and Greek Catholic clergy. He greeted the participants of the forum and stressed the importance of their work for the study of historical truth and reconciliation.
At the end of the study sessions, Bishop Schwarz thanked the organizers, particularly Lesia Kovalenko and Ihor Shaban, for the opportunity to become acquainted with and understand the horrors of the Ukrainian history of the time of the Soviet and Nazi regimes. He expressed regret that they had only three days for that. In the opinion of the participants, very few people in Europe know the truth about Ukraine and its past and, therefore, it is very important to bring it to their countries.
On that very day, the General Assembly of the CEJPC began, which continued from 24 to 25 September. The assembly summarized the activity of the organization for 2006-2007 and elected new leaders. National Justice and Peace commissions from Lithuania and Romania became new members of the CEJPC. In particular, the Romanian one deals with matters similar to those dealt with by the Ukrainian commission: problems of social inequality, a new wave of economic emigration and related problems such as divorces, children deprived of the care of parents, and so on. The Ukrainian delegation will report on its activity in that area, as well.
It has not been decided yet where the next general assembly of the CEJPC will be held. Perhaps it will be one of the countries of the former socialist camp, where there are many problems dealt with by the Justice and Peace commission. Bishop Schwarz noted at the opening of the assembly in Kyiv that the committee may be likened to a weather vane pointing the church in the direction of the wind of time and where problems the church should deal with exist. This year, they were the problems of reconciliation and mutual understanding in Ukraine.
