A Virtuous Cycle Nanovic in Solidarity

There is no greater happiness than to see how a young person develops, matures, and flourishes as a human being.

TOP: Taras Dobko wears his traditional vyshyvanky during a Ukrainian event at the Nanovic Institute.

CENTER: The Ukrainian flag on the campus of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine

BELOW: The flag painted on Josh Zhang ’23 before a student-led gathering outside Notre Dame’s Main Building to show solidarity and support for the people of Ukraine.

A Game Changer for Catholic Higher Education

The Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP) is a network uniting the University of Notre Dame and six Catholic universities from Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine. One of the major projects realized by the Nanovic Institute within the CUP framework is a visiting scholars program. In total, 163 scholars have participated in the program to date, including 22 scholars from UCU. These include five current vice-rectors, two academic deans and a dean of student affairs, three heads of school, and two chairs of academic departments. Most of these people have been promoted into their positions of responsibility with their time spent at the Nanovic Institute playing a decisive role in their professional growth. The relationship has also developed beyond the tenure of these visiting fellowships, resulting in new bilateral projects led by UCU faculty like the Faith and Freedom project and the Legal Challenges Posed by the Large-Scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine project. UCU has been encouraged by the dynamic and courageous developments in the CUP network like the creation of the School of Medicine in Zagreb and the Law School in Tbilisi. It is a rewarding experience to see how Catholic higher education in Eastern and Central Europe has increasingly become a game changer and an academic home for more and more young people ready to contribute to and serve their societies.

Collaboration, Hospitality, and Friendship

BY TARAS DOBKO

One of the messages I keep conveying to new students and employees at my university in Lviv is an appreciation of what has happened with Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) over the 30 years since its return from exile to independent Ukraine. In the early 1990s, we started from scratch with no resources except the arresting idea of establishing the first Catholic university in the former Soviet Union and a few dedicated and daring people who were young enough to dream big. Today UCU is one of the best universities in Ukraine attracting the country’s top students and driving many reforms in higher education, society, and the Church. My message is that we should not take all of this for granted. Our relative success has been so dependent on the generosity of so many people that we cannot boast being self-made. It is the love and support of others that has brought UCU into being and made us what we are today.

The early 1990s also saw the launch of another institution across the Atlantic Ocean, one that would play a pivotal role in empowering UCU and other Catholic universities in Central and Eastern Europe: the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Communication between the Nanovic Institute and UCU started with A. James McAdams, the Institute’s director from 2002 to 2018. Jim’s intimate knowledge of global communism and its devastating influence on society and the mindset of peoples in Eastern Europe made him sensitive to the transformation of post-communist, post-authoritarian, and post-colonial society in Ukraine. Jim did not simply remain a friendly spectator but deployed his credentials and power to help UCU and other emerging academic institutions in Eastern Europe develop and to build the capacity of their best people.

In 2003-2004, the Nanovic Institute brought together Catholic universities in Central and Eastern Europe in the Catholic Universities Partnership (CUP). It was timely and prophetic. It helped us all discover our neighbors and transcend the divisions of a difficult past and the prejudices of the present, and our Catholicity became more tangible and valuable. The Nanovic Institute anticipated a call by Pope Francis in his 2018 apostolic constitution Veritatis Gaudium for closer and more intense collaboration between Catholic academic institutions. The Holy Father called for these collaborations in order to acquire a better understanding of the complexity of the contemporary world and to develop more cogent responses to the urgent needs of our societies.

The success of running a Catholic university very much depends on acquiring a better understanding of how exciting an enterprise it is and how big a difference it can make in people’s lives. There is no greater happiness than to see how a young person develops, matures, and flourishes as a human being. The CUP helps to refresh this understanding and develop close academic friendships, which become the foundation for building a robust Catholic academic culture and for coping with institutional challenges.

In working with the Nanovic Institute, we have learned that partnership can become a way of life when you work for the common good. We have learned how important hospitality is in academic life. We have witnessed how a virtuous cycle can be generated through partnership – a creation of added value and superabundance of the good. To quote Jesus’ teaching (Luke 13:18-19): “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.” In its 30 years, the Nanovic Institute has cultivated an abundant harvest and catapulted many academics from Central and Eastern European countries in their scholarly or administrative careers.

In the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Nanovic Institute has stood shoulder to shoulder with its partners who were forced into adverse circumstances. It has built a solid platform for Notre Dame’s interest in Ukraine. The Institute’s long friendship with Ukraine made Notre Dame’s response to the war in Ukraine unmatched in solidarity and action. Notre Dame has proposed a comprehensive plan for partnership with UCU that would empower the university in its response to the challenges posed by the war and its aftermath. This plan encompasses student and faculty exchange, opportunities for administrators to share their experiences and expertise, and research grants to pursue potential new topics of intellectual and academic inquiry that would have a positive impact on civil society in post-war Ukraine.

A famous saying goes: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” For many years, we at UCU have been blessed by the Nanovic Institute’s commitment, trust, and friendship. We keep remembering our modest beginnings – and we will always be grateful to the Nanovic Institute for its partnership, hospitality, and friendship during our university’s journey. ◆