Someone once aptly remarked that Klara Gudzyk was “non-confessional”: the Orthodox believers of the Kyiv Patriarchate considered her to be one of their one, as did the Autocephalous Orthodox followers, while Greek and Roman Catholics emphasized her benevolence to them. In my view, she was merely a wise person, an unbiased journalist, and a good Christian. Among those who came to bid their last farewells were Apostolic Nuncio Ivan Yurkovych, the Bishop of Vyshhorod and Podillia Volodymyr (UAOC), and Rev. Volodymyr Stavnykovych (UOC KP), who celebrated the requiem. (Most of the bishops of the UGCC, headed by Patriarch Liubomyr Huzar, were away at a council in London, and were not able to be present in person. They sent their condolences via the press service of the UGCC.)
Also present was Gudzyk’s nephew Hlib (on behalf of the family from Kaliningrad and The Day’s staff), and Liubov Lytvynova and Natalia Zovenko, former graduates (1981) of the Donetsk Institute of Soviet Trade (now the Donetsk Tuhan-Baranovsky National University of Economics and Trade), where Gudzyk once taught.
“I was totally alien to journalism (or more exactly, to The Day): with a technical training, having worked for decades as an engineer, translator, scholar, and teacher of IT at a university,” wrote Gudzyk in the foreword to her Apocrypha. This is just a fragment of her official biography. After long years of acquaintance Gudzyk became known as a connoisseur of ballet and opera and a fan of traveling. When already well over 70 she went ice swimming in the winter, and in the summer she rafted down a mountain river leaving the younger people in the dust.
“My first meeting, when I just arrived in Kyiv, was with Klara,” reminisces Apostolic Nuncio Yurkovych. “It was quite a surprise to immediately get an opportunity to meet such an authoritative periodical as The Day. Klara Gudzyk was undoubtedly a very interesting person, professionally speaking. She was sensitive to all denominations. She was aware of the role of each of them in Ukrainian history and Ukrainian society. In particular, that of our Catholic Church. She was also interesting as a person who, when turning 60, found her vocation in journalism. It is evident that Ukraine is aware that it needs her writing.”
After the requiem, a funeral repast was held at The Day’s headquarters, where both current and former members of the staff gathered. “Everyone who ever looked through Klara Gudzyk’s Apocrypha, came across a wealth of interesting material,” remarked The Day’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna. “Among them is the article ‘Missionaries of Charity,’ about the Carmelite sisters. In their asylum in Kyiv they fed and sheltered the most deprived and vulnerable. What dignity and simplicity one can sense in that heartfelt writing! Such must have been the speech of the first Christians, who survived, in the image of Klara Gudzyk, till these days.
“She could speak with the hierarchs of Church, for example, Pope John Paul II (‘Meeting the Pope became an outstanding event for me even because The Day pays much attention to the issues of church life,’ recalled Gudzyk. ‘I can even say that thanks to our newspaper, this theme has found its lawful permanent place in the mundane mass media, as one of the manifestations of social life… I jumped to the occasion to present the Pope with a set of CDs, and an electronic version of The Day’s library. At the beginning of the audience I addressed the pontiff in Polish, but when he learned where I had come from he switched to Ukrainian’), and with a shoe repairer from Obolon in the same language — that of a true Christian. Let us remember her as such. And let us follow her in love and charity.”
A good thing is that she left her book, Klara Gudzyk’s Apocrypha — it will serve as a moral and spiritual testament. Curiously, the book opens and closes with articles on Christmas themes. In one of them, Gudzyk wrote: “Our Christmas carols are undoubtedly one of the brightest signs of this feast… Turgenev once wrote that in the hour of hard pondering over the fates of his nation, the only consolation he could find was the Russian language. I find my consolation in ancient Ukrainian carols. It is hard to say what their essence is. Is it their particular beauty, which makes a magic impact on the listener’s soul, or conversely, it is the mysticism of our forefathers’ naive faith that makes koliadky so special and wonderful? Yet listening to them dispels doubts and gives birth to hope.”
Klara Gudzyk passed away on the third day of Christmas.
