ADDRESS AT SAINT IGNATIUS LOYOLA UNIVERSITY

Very Reverend President, Your Excellencies, Rev. Fathers, Ladies and Gentlemen!

It is indeed a great honor for me to receive this singular distinction from so great a university dedicated to the holy founder of the Society of Jesus, Saint Ignatius Loyola. One reed not recall that the Society of Jesus is truly the greatest and powerful order of the Catholic Church, excelling in the fields of science and knowledge and thus achieving for the Church one of the greatest degrees of merit.

This great University, now in existence for almost one hundred years, is known the world-over. In all humility I am privileged to say that I studied for many years at the Canisianum University in Innsbruck where the philosophical and theological departments are under the capable direction of the faithful sons of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

It was in that University that I wrote a dissertation on eternal life, de vita aeterna, and after the arduous examinations, attained in 1918 a doctor's degree. Two years later I wrote a monograph on the Photian doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the procession of the Holy Spirit solely from the Father.

This work was accepted not only by the Jesuit Fathers at the University, but also was received favorably by the Orthodox and scholars throughout the world. I was thus enabled to be a professor of dogma.

Because of the First World War from 1917-1922 I was not able to return to Lviw in the Ukraine and so I found myself at Rome. There on the basis of my work de principio spirationis in Sanctissima Trinitate I became magister aggregatus, an associate professor, at the Gregorianum University. Having returned to Lviw in Western Ukraine, for twenty five years I was professor and rector of the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic philosophical and theological Academy. During these years I wrote 130 works. I am happy to say that in large measure the education and training that I received was due to the good Fathers of the Society of Jesus.

The bestowing of this honorary doctor's degree today I regard as the crowning of my studies and degrees received at the Jesuit University. I regard this distinction not only as something wonderful for my humble person, but more so for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which as you know, has had to suffer terrible persecutions in these recent years.

I extend my cordial thanks for these impressing ceremonies. It is my ardent wish and my fervent prayer that from these halls at Loyola University there would continue to come forth many famous and glorious luminaries, ever-burgeoning with knowledge to the honor of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic Church and the universal font of this world's knowledge. God bless this glorious sanctuary of learning!

August 1968