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Commentary | Jun. 9, 2017

His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar was the spiritual father of todays Ukraine, but also of many of us.

I knew Father Lubomyr, Bishop Husar and His Beatitude over 50 years in different countries on two continents. As a boy I saw him in the United States in the mid-1960s during summer vacations in the borscht belt of the Catskills in New York state, where he was a parish pastor. Already at that time, he captivated young and old, intellectuals and simple people, by his authenticity and humor.

In the late 1970s and 1980s in Rome, Father Lubomyr was our spiritual director at the seminary and my personal confessor. Then, in Ukraine, for nearly 20 years, I was honored to be a close collaborator.

He was born in 1933 in the city of Lviv, then within the borders of interwar Poland. As a child, Lubomyr endured the horrors of Soviet and Nazi occupations of western Ukraine before the Husar family fled to Austria in 1944. There he went to high school and mastered German and Latin. With his parents he moved to the United States in 1949. In Stamford, Connecticut, Washington and New York, he completed undergraduate and graduate seminary studies and a specialization in philosophy.

After serving as a parish priest and teaching foreign languages and philosophy at St. Basils Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Stamford, he went to Rome and there completed a doctorate in ecclesiology and ecumenism. Longing for a more contemplative life, he became a monk of the Studite order in 1972. In 1977, he was secretly consecrated a bishop by Cardinal Josyf Slipyi.

By the mid-1970s the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), outlawed in the Soviet Union in 1946, had been clandestine for 30 years. Lubomyrs episcopal consecration and his status as a bishop remained a secret he was a reserve bishop for the Church of the catacombs in case the Soviets succeeded in eliminating hierarchical apostolic succession in the UGCC. Thus, he continued his monastic life and his teaching at the Urbaniana University and the Lviv seminary for 19 years in Rome and, after 1993, in newly independent Ukraine.

In 1996, seeing the great spiritual gifts of the secret bishop, Pope St. John Paul II publicly acknowledged his episcopal consecration. It was with the Popes support that, in 2001, the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine chose Lubomyr Husar as its leader. A week after the election, the Holy Father named him cardinal.

The past 15 years of deep social upheaval have been heartrending for a traumatized post-communist Ukrainian society. At the time of the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, as well as during the last three years of war, Cardinal Husar was a voice of wisdom, reassurance and hope. He became the most recognized moral authority of the country, despite being the leader of a minority church (10% of the population).

Lubomyr Husar was endowed with many talents spirituality, intelligence, sensitivity, great imagination and a remarkable ability to communicate. He preached and sang with a beautiful, resonant baritone. He was considered the best preacher of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of the past 50 years.

But above all, he was a man of prayer, a monk thirsting for communion with God. As a priest, archimandrite and hierarch, he prayed ceaselessly to be in union with the Lord and lead others toward this communion. His prayer gave him the fortitude and peace necessary to endure many physical ailments. He was functionally blind for the last 12 years of his life. Most people were not fully aware of his handicap. He never complained.

For Lubomyr Husar, the unity of Christian churches was of utmost importance. He wrote his doctorate on a pioneer of ecumenism, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and his theology and spirituality of reconciliation among Christians. His Beatitude patiently wrought unity among the bishops of the synod of UGCC, who were deeply divided at the time of his election. He brought together Ukrainians of different confessions, or without confession, becoming for them a spiritual father and moral beacon.

Taxi drivers, hipsters, the young and old, business persons and artists, practicing parishioners and those who were not members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church listened to Husars audio and video broadcasts. The cardinal contributed to rapprochement between Ukrainians, Poles and Jews. He dreamed of the end of the war and peace with Russia.

Lubomyr Husar left a legacy of two particular virtues that are most relevant for Ukraines political and economic elite. Maybe not only for Ukraine and maybe not only for the elite.

In the world there is a thirst for power and the desire to preserve it, often at all costs. Husar gave up power and surprised all of Ukraine by his retirement in 2011, unprecedented for the head of any of the Eastern Christian Churches of Ukraine.

The cardinal lived humbly, possessed little and disliked luxury. For the liturgy and for glory to God, he followed the rich Byzantine tradition, with the beauty of its celebrations. Otherwise he was a minimalist and disdained doodads.

Cardinal Husar had simple tastes in just about everything. His favorite meal was pork and beans. This modesty and simplicity also prevailed in the manner in which he related with others. He communicated with ease with the everyman, in many different languages, in different countries and continents. His conversation was embellished with pearls of self-effacing humor. Lubomyr knew how to laugh and laugh at himself. This humor reflected his intimacy with God, for humor and mystery are cousins of the sacred and the sacramental. His humor often carried a strong social moral message. Asked how the oligarchs of Ukraine can be reformed, Husar replied: They should attend more funerals.

At the time of his passage to God, we accompany Lubomyr with prayer for the peace and repose of his soul.

Let us pray for His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Cardinal Husars 46-year-old successor, who must bear the burdens of his flock in a time of war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Let us pray that the Lord make Lubomyr Husars virtues our own.

Vichnaia pamiat! Everlasting memory!

Bishop Borys Gudziak is the

bishop of the Eparchy of St.Volodymyr in Paris for

Ukrainian Catholics in France, Benelux and Switzerland.

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In Memoriam: Lubomyr Husar, Cardinal and Spiritual Father of Ukraine - National Catholic Register

Dont expect any supply relief from Black Sea wheat, says an analyst.

Weve got another bumper crop of wheat coming out of Ukraine and Russia, said Mike Lee, owner of Green Square Agro Consulting.

He recently conducted a five-day, 2,500 kilometre tour of fields in the main wheat growing regions of Russia and Ukraine.

His conclusion is their crops are going to be a lot bigger than the U.S. Department of Agriculture is estimating.

The USDA is forecasting 67 million tonnes of Russian wheat, down from last years record 72 million tonne crop.

Lee thinks that number will be revised higher in tomorrows World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.

Russia could produce up to 70 million tonnes this year, which would be the second largest crop in the post-Soviet Union era.

He still has a hard time believing the country grew 72 million tonnes of wheat last year because when he toured the fields just before harvest, most of the wheat had toppled over and was lying on the ground.

This has been a cooler growing season, and the wheat isnt as tall as it was last year.

It has not fallen over. It has got plenty of rain, but its upright, its solid, he said.

This year the crop looks better, but I cant believe its going to achieve 72 million tonnes.

Last years crop quality was abysmal. It had poor protein levels and was full of mycotoxins. Lee expects quality to be normal this year.

The USDAs latest Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin backs up his forecast of a bumper crop of Russian wheat.

In Russia, widespread showers and thunderstorms sustained excellent yield prospects for flowering to filling winter wheat from the southern Central District into the Southern and North Caucasus Districts, stated the report.

The USDA is forecasting 25 million tonnes of production from Ukraine. Lee believes it will be closer to 27 million tonnes, which would again be the second largest crop since the demise of the Soviet Union.

In its weekly weather report, the USDA said production prospects are variable in Ukraine. Vegetative health is excellent in southern and eastern Ukraine, contrasting with poor health in the central part of the country because of drought.

The Black Sea harvest will start in about two weeks.

There is nothing, barring a tsunami or something really catastrophic, that will do any damage to the wheat crop now, said Lee.

That means Canada will have plenty of competition from Russia and Ukraine in export markets this year.

Both those regions are long overdue for a difficult harvest, but it doesnt look like its going to be this year for the wheat, said Lee.

He previously worked as an agronomy consultant in Ukraine and has been conducting five crop tours of the Black Sea region every growing season for the past three years.

Lee tweets pictures and videos and writes a report at the conclusion of each tour detailing his findings and providing yield forecasts for subscribers to his service, which can be found on his Agronomy-Ukraine website.

He has noticed in the last couple of years that the governments of both countries are significantly backing agriculture and are starting to promote sensible policies for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

In the past it was just random rubbish that came out of these places, said Lee.

Many farmers in the western world have a misguided view that farming in the Black Sea region is backward, but Lee said nothing could be further from the truth. It has already come a long way and with government support, the region will become an even more formidable competitor in export markets.

The state of farming is at a very high level and is only improving, he said.

Contact sean.pratt@producer.com

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Bumper wheat crops expected in Russia, Ukraine - The Western ... - Western Producer

4 mins ago Analysis By Paul Goble | 4 mins ago

In the course of a wide-ranging discussion in advance of the release of his new book on Russia today, Moscow economist Vladislav Inozemtsev provides perhaps the most compelling argument yet on why Vladimir Putin will do everything he can to ensure that Ukraine fails in its efforts to become a modern state and why the West must make sure it does.

Arguing that Russia at present is not threatened by disintegration and that, as a result, the Kremlin may not feel compelled to make major changes in its manner of rule, the commentator says that Russia may only begin to change if an attractive example of what such changes could bring were to appear (znak.com/2017-05-15/ekonomist_vladislav_inozemcev_o_tom_kogda_rossiya_smozhet_postroit_demokratiyu).

Only Ukraine, he says, could play that role and shake up Russia, but it could do so only if it were to be rapidly transformed into a developed Western country, become a member of the European Union by 2025, and thus become a new Jerusalem, showing the way to the future for former Soviet republics.

But so far, Mr. Inozemtsev continues, the Kremlin has been lucky in that in Kyiv one kleptocrat has replaced another in power, while talented young people flee and there is complete stagnation as far as reforms are concerned. And growing Ukrainian Russophobia, which Mr. Putin has sponsored by his actions, works to the Kremlin leaders advantage.

As a result, for Russians as Mr. Putin intends, Ukraine has become an example of how not to act and this is the most powerful factor which in our days strengthens the Russian regime, the commentator says, adding that in his view, all the members of the Kyiv cabinet of ministers should be awarded medals For services to the [Russian] fatherland of various degrees.

At a time when many in Western capitals seem to have grown tired of the Ukrainian crisis brought on by the Russian Anschluss of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbas and want to focus on Moscow alone, Mr. Inozemtsevs argument is critical: If the West really wants Russia to change in the ways it says it does, then the West must make sure Ukraine succeeds.

That wont be easy, but the Moscow commentator has performed a useful service by reminding everyone that what is at stake in Ukraine is not just Ukraine and its heroic people, but the fate of Russia and much else.

Paul Goble is a long-time specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia who has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The article above is reprinted with permission from his blog called Window on Eurasia (http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/).

Excerpt from:
Why Putin can't allow Ukraine to succeed and why the West must make sure it does - The Ukrainian Weekly (press release) (subscription)

A spokeswoman for U.S. President Donald Trump says sanctions against Russia for its interference in Ukraine would remain in place until the crisis is resolved.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders on June 8 said the United States "is committed to existing sanctions against Russia."

She added the administration will keep them in place "until Moscow fully honors its commitments to resolve the crisis in Ukraine."

"We believe that the existing executive-branch sanctions regime is the best tool for compelling Russia to fulfill its commitments," she added in an off-camera briefing with reporters.

The United States and other Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow in 2014 for its illegal annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula and its support for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

President Donald Trump has caused some concern among allies about his commitment to sanctions, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and saying he wants to improve relations with Moscow.

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White House Says Russia Sanctions To Remain Until Ukraine Crisis Resolved - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

euronews

Ukraine Says Prepared to Negotiate With Gazprom Outside Russia New York Times KIEV Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz is prepared to attend talks with Russian gas giant Gazprom provided negotiations are not held in Russia, Naftogaz said on Thursday. Gazprom and Naftogaz have been locked in a bitter legal dispute since 2014, ... Ukraine Transports More Russian GasNatural Gas World all 6 news articles »

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Ukraine Says Prepared to Negotiate With Gazprom Outside Russia - New York Times