Patriarch Lubomyr congratulated Obnova on its 80th anniversary

With hierarchal benediction and wishes of many God’s graces in realizing its ideals, the head of the UGCC addressed the participants of the celebration of the 80^th anniversary of the academic association Obnova (renewal), reported in the office of Major Archbishop. The greeting of His Beatitude Lubomyr was read on the anniversary celebration which took place in Lviv on Sunday, April 18.  “The real health of our state organism requires people of a high intellectual level, whose lives and activity are built on moral principles. Considering our thousand-year-tradition, we need a Christian elite, a real elite – not one that was artificially created,” His Beatitude Lubomyr expressed in his address. 
“At such a moment we all need to remember not only the historical information of Obnova, its beginnings in Ukraine, continuation abroad after the war, and revival in an independent state, but also to consider why such a Christian association is important for the life of our church and for the life of the people,” said the head of the church. “Eighty years ago this society was born in the bosom of the Greek Catholic Church. It rose from the necessity of uniting the Christian academic elite.”   
Noticing that in ancient times the leading stratums of the society identified with the dynastic gentry, and in modern times, for whom the so-called democratic order was more important, greater attention was paid on the intellectual formation of the leading stratums, His Beatitude Lubomyr sums up: “The merit of such understanding and foundation of the academic association Obnova should be attributed to such figures as Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptiytskyj).” 
In the opinion of His Beatitude Lubomyr, “the celebration of the 80^th anniversary is on the one hand a commemoration of the souls and bodies sacrificed for the church and for the nation, figures through whose merits we can now gather. On the other hand, this should be a real ‘renewal’ of the intention to be an alive, true, not only by name, member of the Christian elite, and to build a worthy future for one’s church, for one’s people, and for one’s state.” We remind that the association of Ukrainian Catholic students Obnova was founded in Lviv in 1930 on the initiative of Metropolitan Andrey and future Patriarch Joseph (Slipyj). The first spiritual leader of the association was the Rev. Mykola Konrad, a professor of philosophy and theology of the Lviv Theological Academy. The slogan of the society is to “Renew everything in Christ.” 
With the beginning of World War II the activity of the association was stopped in Lviv and continued to function abroad. Since 1947 the association has operated in Germany, Belgium, Britain, and North America.  
On April 2, 1992, Obnova renewed its activity in Ukraine and now is active in five cities of Ukraine as the Student and Academic Federation Obnova.    

Information Department of the UGCC