March 19, 2021

March 27, 2011

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Ten years ago, on March 27, 2011, Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the 40-year-old native of Stryi, Lviv Oblast, and who previously served as apostolic administrator of the eparchy of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was enthroned as the major archbishop of Kyiv-Halych of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv.

“In the 20th century, our Church went with its Savior to the end – unto the complete liquidation of its native land and death, it seemed,” the major archbishop said. “Yet this death of hundreds of thousands of our laity, clergy, monks and nuns, with our episcopate in the lead, was a death on the cross, and therefore life-giving! Our parents, grandparents and ancestors showed – through us, their descendants, and through us, to an independent Ukraine – the strength and invincibility of the honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord.”

It was the first time in the Ukrainian Catholic Church’s history that its prime hierarch was enthroned in Kyiv, with previous enthronements taking place in Lviv, and was noted as a sign of the UGCC’s growth during the previous 10 years. It was also the first time that the outgoing patriarch (Major Archbishop Lubomyr Cardinal Husar) witnessed the enthronement of his successor.

The selection of Bishop Sviatoslav by the Holy Synod of Bishops showed that the Ukrainian Catholic Church was taking a renewed approach.

“I’m impressed with the selection of a young man because we need to orient ourselves toward the new generation,” said Yevhen Sverstiuk, 82, a Soviet-era dissident and chief editor of the Orthodox newspaper Our Faith. He added: “We have people around us who carry with them old habits, who have nothing new to say, and repeat what they’ve always said. But the Church is supposed to address different tendencies and dangers of our time. And it’s clear that the youth re-orient themselves far better. It’s a good, solid initiative to truly refresh thinking, methods and orientation in the world.”

In the election process, Bishop Sviatoslav was not considered a leading candidate by observers because of his relatively young age, including the fact that he was the youngest bishop in the UGCC, and (at the time) fourth-youngest among the world’s 5,000-plus Catholic bishops. Some bishops at the Holy Synod said the election of the young bishop was confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s influence.

The election of a young major archbishop is not unprecedented for the UGCC, with the election of Andrey Sheptytsky at age 36 in 1901. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav was joined for his enthronement by more than 350 priests and 60 bishops, including representatives of the UGCC and other Eastern-rite Catholic Churches. Other religious leaders present included Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate [who currently holds the title of Honorary Patriarch Filaret of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine]; Bishop Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church; Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, papal nuncio of Ukraine; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation of the Oriental Churches in the Roman Curia; Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv of the Roman Catholic Church; Patriarch Gregory III of the Church of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem; Metropolitan Ivan Babiak of the Slovak Greek-Catholic Church; Marian Rojek, delegate of the Polish Episcopal Conference; and Sergei Gaek, the apostolic visitator for the Belarusian Greek-Catholic Church, among others. Also making headlines, for the first time in independent Ukraine, a representative of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (in this instance, Bishop Ilarii, vicar of the Kyiv Metropolitanate), attended a major ceremony of the UGCC.

Patriarch Sviatoslav announced three priorities: expanding the Church through evangelization; “meeting geographic challenges” through establishing churches in those Ukrainian communities where it has none; and meeting the need for a single strategic center to unite and coordinate the Church’s experience, as well as to organize the necessary administrators to build a chain of command that implements contemporary management techniques.

In one of his first major steps, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav scheduled a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican to discuss, among other topics, recognition of the UGCC’s patriarchate, which was a goal that was launched following the arrival in Rome by Major Archbishop Josyf Slipyj in 1963 after his release from Soviet imprisonment.
Source: “Sviatoslav Shevchuk enthroned as leader of Ukrainian Catholics,” by Zenon Zawada, The Ukrainian Weekly, April 3, 2011.

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