On December 14, Professor Olena Budnyk gave a speech at the international annual webinar Lectio Magistralis Internationalis: “Man and Father: Tradition and Changes”, organized by the University of Silesia in Katowice (Republic of Poland). More than 100 participants from different countries (Italy, Argentina, Kenya, USA, Slovakia, Ukraine, Spain, etc.) took part in the online event, simultaneously translated from Italian and English into Polish. Representatives from three countries – Slovakia, Ukraine, and Poland – were invited to discuss the keynote speech of Professor Julia Paola Di Nicola (Center for Personality Studies in Teramo, Italy).
Olena Budnyk, a participant from Ukraine, considered some aspects of multiculturalism, naturalism, and personalism, presented the ideal of a husband and father in the Ukrainian philosophy and Ethno pedagogy, emphasized the duties of modern men as courageous and patriotic defenders of the country in the conditions of the Russian military aggression and women’s functions to preserve a strong family, the role of husband and wife in the modern family in the conditions of value transformation. In her speech, the professor touched on the phenomenology of religion; in the context of the outlined problem, she quoted some lines from Pope John II’s letter to women with thanks to God for the women’s mission in the world – mother, wife, sister, daughter, worker, sanctified woman, etc.
In the discussion, the participants touched upon the issues of gender research in history, mythology, and culture; gender equality, feminism, homosexuality, transgenderism, the role of women and men in religious tradition and the modern world, etc. International cooperation on holding such events in the future has been initiated.
The “PNU EcoSystem” Center team members – Associate Professor Kateryna Fomin and Senior Lecturer Mykhailo Kotyk – also took part in the webinar, receiving the relevant certificates.