On Wednesday, May 31, the Ivan Franko Lviv National University hosted a presentation of the Ukrainian translation of “Tell me the truth. Dialogues about the meaning of life” – books-conversations of His Beatitude Sviatoslav with Fr. Paolo Asolan, a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. Both co-authors took part in the presentation.
The event began with a commemoration of all those who gave their lives defending Ukraine in the war with Russia from the Revolution of Dignity to the present day, including teachers, students and graduates of Lviv National University.
The meeting with the Head of the UGCC in the walls of Lviv University on the occasion of the presentation of his book is not the first time. The previous one was in 2018 with the Ukrainian translation of the book “Dialogue Heals Wounds” – the Blessed One’s conversations with Krzysztof Tomasik, a journalist and editor of the Polish Catholic Information Agency.
And here is another book-dialogue, which was published in Rome in 2018 and had a great resonance there, in particular in intellectual and church circles. The foreword to the Ukrainian edition was written by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican.
His Beatitude Svyatoslav expressed a special word of gratitude to those who worked on the Ukrainian translation: translators Tetyana Bosii, Olena Horyachuk and Iryna Borusovska, Fr. Romanov Ostrovsky, vice-rector of the Kyiv Trinity Seminary, who became the theological editor, and Fr. Andrii Soletsky, head of the Secretariat of the UGCC Chapter in Rome and responsible editor of the book.
His Beatitude Svyatoslav told the story of this work, which can become an illustration of what needs to be done to oppose Russia in the information war, so that the world hears the voice of Ukraine, knows the truth about it and the war that has been going on for 10 years. In the five years since she came into the world, the relevance of these challenges and questions has only intensified and become even more obvious.
“The idea of that little book does not belong to me,” the Head of the UGCC tells the background. — On December 14, 2016, when the war was already going on in Ukraine, I was given the opportunity to deliver a lecture at the John Paul II Institute in Rome at the Pontifical Lateran University. I chose a slightly provocative topic, but, on the other hand, such that I would not be accused of politicizing church, theological, and philosophical life – “Protection of human dignity in post-Soviet societies.” I then wanted to speak to the intellectual world, to the Catholic Church, the world gathered in Rome, about my suffering Motherland. I really wanted to say that after the Revolution of Dignity, Ukrainians feel like no one else that no one will take that dignity away from them. Even then, I tried to explain to the Roman world that the struggle we are waging is a struggle for the future, it is like a confrontation between two different projects of the future. With their project, the Russians want to go back to the Soviet past, to those pseudo-historical myths. And Ukrainians want to be free. For us, democracy is freedom, and from it all our other aspirations and struggles flow.
At the end of this lecture, many people came up to me. Because, actually, Russian propaganda was already so strong in Rome at that time that the voice of Ukraine was almost not heard. Her only voice remained our Church, which tried to oppose those money-making media magnates. And then a humble professor of this university, who is sitting here next to me today, Father Paolo Asolan, came up to me and said a phrase that I still remember: “The world must hear your truth, your story.” Then I almost burst into tears and said: “Professor, what else should we do? Our Church stopped being silent a long time ago. We speak, but sometimes we are not heard!”. And then he suggested: “Let’s prepare a book.” And a year later he came to see me in Kyiv for Easter. We spent the whole Holy Week – from Easter to Holy Sunday – together in my residence. And they talked about a whole book.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that the author’s idea was Fr. Paolo Asolana – from the beginning it was that Ukraine has something to say to the world about what it is losing – about the meaning of human life. Moreover, Ukraine testifies to these meanings and values both five years ago and now. And the world is beginning to hear and understand it.
“The professor was interested not only in how we have witnessed our faith in our history, but he understood that our Church, our Ukrainian people have something unique that they have to say to the secularized world, a world that is losing its meaning. And when life has no meaning, even in a rich country where there is everything, life has no meaning and turns into a slow death. This is how this book was born.”
It was released in Italian in 2018. At that time, there was a Pontifical Synod dedicated to youth, and it was presented to Catholic bishops from all over the world. The book caused huge interest and a tremendous resonance.
“The title of the book given by the Italian publisher was interesting – ‘Tell me the truth,'” continues the Head of the Church. – Few people know, but this is the name of a famous Italian song from the beginning of the 20th century, something like Ukrainian songs, when a girl asks a guy: “Tell me the truth – do you love me?”. So this is a book about truth, about love. Such a name is given