Site of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic cathedral in Kyiv is consecrated (05/20/01)

Site of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic cathedral in Kyiv is consecrated

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Cardinal Lubomyr Husar said on May 13 that the headquarters and spiritual center of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church that he was recently elected to lead would soon move from Lviv to Kyiv. The new archbishop major of 5 million Catholic faithful made his remarks prior to consecrating the grounds of the future site of the Church's first cathedral in Kyiv.

The blessing ceremony took place after Cardinal Husar served his first Divine Liturgy in Ukraine's capital city since his enthronement as archbishop major of the UGCC on January 28 and his elevation to cardinal, or prince of the Catholic Church, by Pope John Paul II on February 21.

Cardinal Husar told journalists prior to the church service that the cathedral, to be called the Sobor of the Resurrection of Christ, would become the new home of the UGCC. St. George's Cathedral in Lviv has been the center of the Church for centuries.

The primate of the Church said the move was logical and necessary.

"This is the capital. Lviv became the capital because Kyiv was strangled (by Mongol hordes). But now, thank God, we have our free Kyiv, our free country, and we must be where the center is - I believe this is a very normal thing, just as all the other Church centers are in Kyiv," explained Cardinal Husar.

Thousands of faithful attended archiepiscopal liturgical services at St. Nicholas Church, located at the Askold's Tomb Rotunda on the slopes of the Dnipro River, before many traveled the three kilometers across the river to the future site of what will not only be the largest UGCC church in Ukraine but one of the largest for any faith.

There Cardinal Husar led hundreds of priests, nuns and faithful, as well as several national deputies, Papal Nuncio Mykola Eterovic and UGCC Bishop Vasyl of the Kyiv-Vyshhorod eparchy and nine other UGCC bishops, in a prayer ceremony that concluded with the blessing of the 1.7 hectare tract. Among those on hand were five busloads of faithful from the western oblasts of Ukraine.

The new cathedral, which is scheduled for completion in 2003 if funding and donations suffice, will be a five-domed structure 49 meters wide, 56 meters long and 61 meters high. It will incorporate traditional design with contemporary features. Four of the gilded domes, representing the four evangelists, will surround a larger, central dome, representing the figure of Christ. The building will be elevated with access to the church from all sides via steps that will surround it. The church will have room for some 1,500 faithful.

The territory of the new cathedral, which sits abreast a channel of the Dnipro River, will include a wooded recreation area as well as a small parking lot. There will be a special alleyway constructed to allow for processions to the banks of the Rusanivka Channel for Epiphany celebrations.

Actual construction on the site has yet to begin, but the land has been cleared and the area encircled with a wooden construction barricade.

Noted Ukrainian architect Mykola Levchuk designed the structure, which took the top prize for contemporary building designs for religious structures at a recent architectural design contest in Moscow.

Mr. Levchuk, 62, of Kyiv, is the director of the architectural firm Kyivproyekt and a member of the Ukrainian Architects Association. He has more than 50 projects to his credit.

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