Established: 1997
Director: Myroslav Marynovych
Tel.: (380-322) 40-99-40, 76-04-98
Fax: (380-322) 40-99-50
e-mail: irs@ucu.edu.ua

Purpose: To be a mediator between religious and secular outlooks, between the Church and the centers of civil societies; that is, to become a place where secular thought will be engaged in a tolerant and constructive dialogue with Church doctrine

The Institute should help social institutions to learn from the experience of the Church, which has been acquired by centuries of pastoral ministry, and the Institute should become an important link between Church and society.

Fields of activity:

• Social – study and spread of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church; comparative studies in the social doctrine of the Eastern Churches; analysis of the modern state of post-communist society; study of the role played by the laity in Church life and practical participation in the lay movement
• Ecumenical – study and spread of the teachings of the Catholic Church on ecumenism; participation in the development of the ecumenical position of the UGCC; participation in ecumenical meetings, seminars, and so on
• Inter-religious – participation in Judaeo-Christian and Moslem-Christian dialogues.
• Scholarly-research – The subject of the Institute’s research is the whole complex of spiritual phenomena of modern Ukrainian society. The object of the Institute’s study is to develop adequate models for the co-existence of secular society and the Christian religion. Accordingly, the following topics are being researched: religious liberty and human rights: theological, legal and ecumenical and civil and ecclesiastical aspects; social doctrine of Church: the experience of the Western and Eastern Churches; religion at the turn of the millennium: the problem of a new image of religion in the post-secular world.