Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, RIP
Leader of Ukrainian Catholic Church

Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, the Archbishop of Lviv and leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, died on Thursday morning, December 14 at the age of 86.

Born on June 24, 1914, Ivan Myroslav Lubachivsky studied philosophy in Rome, Lviv, and Innsbruck. Ordained to the priesthood in 1938, he was forced into exile when the Soviet regime suppressed the Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholic Church. He lived for years in Rome and in the United States. In 1979 he was named Bishop of Philadelphia, serving the Ukrainian Catholics in the United States. Then, just a few months later, he was elected by the synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to succeed the aged and infirm Cardinal Josef Slipyi. He became coadjutor archbishop of Lviv, and succeeded to the full title of archbishop when Cardinal Slipyi died in 1984. Pope John Paul II raised him to the College of Cardinals in 1985.

As Archbishop of Lviv, Cardinal Lubachivsky was the spiritual leader of the nearly 8 million members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Since Communist persecution drove thousands of Catholics out of Ukraine, the Ukrainian faithful are now spread around the world, with many living in the United States and Canada. Cardinal Lubachivsky himself remained in Rome until 1991, when the Eastern-rite Church regained legal recognition in Ukraine.

The cardinal himself had been weakened by progressive illness for several years, and since 1996 the administration of the Lviv archdiocese (and in effect of the Ukrainian Catholic Church) has been in the hands of his auxiliary, Bishop Lubomyr Husar.

In a telegram addressed to Bishop Husar, Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to the people of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and affirmed his “sincere admiration” for the late Cardinal Lubachivsky. The Pope described the late Ukrainian prelate as a “very dear friend” and a man of “profound spirituality,” marked by “constant pastoral care” and “zeal in evangelization.” He also remarked that Cardinal Lubachivsky had helped to guide the Ukrainian Catholic Church through the “long winter of persecution” under the Communist regime, until the Eastern-rite Church regained legal recognition in the 1990s.

As they await the selection of the cardinal’s successor, Ukrainian-rite Catholics continue to argue that their leader should be given the title of Patriarch. To date the Holy See has been reluctant to grant that title, in part because it would probably aggravate the existing tensions between Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox. Catholics will now await the Pope’s visit to Ukraine, in June 2001, for some signal of Vatican intentions.