In 1993, when CNEWA started supporting institutions of the newly resurrected Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, very few people had heard of Borys Gudziak. However today Bishop Borys Gudziak is known as a leading spokesperson of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and is well-recognized for making extraordinary contributions to Ukrainian society and the entire Catholic Church.
At CNEWA, we have decided to feature Bishop Borys among our 90 heroes because of his exemplary leadership and wise stewardship of resources entrusted to his team by our agency over the last 20 years.
Bishop Borys was born 1960 in Syracuse, New York. After completing his undergraduate studies in philosophy and biology at Syracuse University, he continued his education in theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. While living in Italy his spiritual formation was nurtured by the late Cardinal Joseph Slipyj. From 1983 to 1992 Borys Gudziak was working on his doctoral thesis at Harvard University, focusing on the analysis of the Union of Brest of 1596.
In 1992 he moved to Ukraine, where he played an instrumental role in the development of a number of research and educational projects, the most prominent of which is the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv.
Borys Gudziak was ordained a priest in 1998 and became a bishop in 2012.
After half a century of being suppressed by communist regime, the Lviv Theological Academy reopened its programs in 1994 with several dozen students. At the time, they were based in a modest building of a former kindergarten. As a result of Bishop Borys’s charisma and vision, this educational institution has grown into a major center of learning and evangelization in Ukraine. As of today, it remains the only Catholic university on territories of the entire former Soviet Union. Current programs offered by the Ukrainian Catholic University range from undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology and humanities to the highly-sophisticated training opportunities in business, computers sciences, journalism and other areas. (There is more about this extraordinary school in the recent edition of ONE magazine.)
Bishop Borys also offered spiritual and moral support to his people during the uprisings in Kiev in 2013. He wrote about his experience on the front lines of that conflict in ONE, noting, “I trust in the Lord’s presence and work amid these long-suffering people and in their witness to the world.”
Since the beginning of CNEWA’s involvement in Ukraine, the Lviv Theological Academy that later transformed into the Ukrainian Catholic University has been agency’s main Ukrainian support recipient. CNEWA is proud to be able to make such a wise investment and is grateful to Bishop Borys for his wise stewardship. CNEWA’s team wishes Bishop Borys many of God’s blessings as he continues to serve the Catholic Church as an Eparch of the Paris Eparchy of St. Volodymyr the Great, as President of The Ukrainian Catholic University and as a visionary leader who wears many other heavy hats.