Doctoral Defence - For the Service of Congregation and Church
by Sr. Emilia Vandych, SSMI
A great event occurred in the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. On April 12, 2011, for the first time in the history of the Congregation, a Sister received a Doctorate from the Papal Oriental Institute in Rome. Sister Luiza Ciupa, SSMI, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on the theme, “The Image of the Most Holy Mother of God in the Symbolism of the Services of Marian Feasts of the Byzantine Liturgical Year.”
As Sr. Luiza noted, the goal of the given research was to investigate the symbolic representations of the Mother of God, which are manifested in the liturgical texts of Marian feasts. Liturgy is a main source of catechesis, or better put — is an integral part of catechesis. Thus, the chosen theme allowed the research of the richness of its language, which in its turn, gives immense meaning and value in the area of catechesis. Sister Luiza successfully defended her work, and received the highest honour — Summa cum laude.
Present on this occasion were His Excellency Bishop Dionysij Lachovicz, OSBM, Apostolic Visitator for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Italy and Spain, His Excellency Bishop-Emeritus Sofron Mudryj, OSBM, Very Reverend Father Basil Koubetch, OSBM, Archimandrite, Very Reverend Sister Janice Soluk, SSMI, General Superior, with members of her Council, Sisters Servants of all the communities in Rome, and many clergy.
Congratulations, dear Sister Luiza, with wishes for further great successes in the spiritual field of your catechetical-pedagogical mission!
На Многі і Благі Літа! God grant her many years!Sr. Luiza Ciupa, SSMI, is currently the director of the Catechetical-Pedagogical Institute of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and has been since its inception, according to the decision of the Synod of Bishops in 1998. She has been instrumental in the development of catechetics since the emergence of Ukraine from the Soviet regime, and as Assistant Head of the Patriarchal Catechetical Commission, under the headship of His Excellency Bishop Peter Stasiuk, Eparch of Australia and Oceania, since its inception, by unanimous appointment of the Synod in 1996, has seen its development to University standards.
Sr. Emilia Vandych, SSMI, is the General Secretary of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants ofMary Immaculate, and administrator of the website of the SSMI Generalate, http://www.sisterssmi.org/
This article also appears under the title, “A Sister ... a Doctor? Why not?” in http://sluzhebnyci.blogspot.com/
