Pope Francis appointed 21 new cardinals after the Angelus prayer on Sunday, 6 October 2024. Among them is Msgr Mykola Bychok, CSsR of the Lviv Province of the Redemptorists, and currently Bishop of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. After the consistory of 8 December this year, the 44-year-old Redemptorist will be the youngest Cardinal. We congratulate and keep him in our prayers!
Soon after the names of the new cardinals were announced, Bishop Mykola expressed his deep desires, saying, “I, as many others, have received this news with great surprise. I am certainly feeling excited because this appointment is a great privilege. This is not a privilege granted to me personally, but a privilege granted by Pope Francis to the entire Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Catholic Church in Australia.”
“I will endeavour to follow the worthy example of my predecessor Cardinals: Patriarch Josyf Cardinal Slipyj, who, after his release after 18 years in a Soviet gulag and moving to Rome, became the voice of our Church in the free world and, using various forums, emphasised the persecution of the Churches in the USSR and called for more radical actions to protect the rights of believers.”
“I understand how much responsibility this appointment entrusts to me,” Bishop Mykola said. “Responsibility for the life and future of our entire church. Knowing the difficult times that our Ukrainian people are going through because of the war, I will continue to inform the Catholic world about what is happening in our land and constantly remind them of Ukraine.”
“This is also a great responsibility to the Catholic Church in Australia, where faith is gradually being lost and secularisation is spreading. I see these challenges, and I ask the Lord to guide me on this path and help me to accept and respond to them with dignity.”
Bishop Mykola concluded by saying, “Realising this great responsibility, I ask everyone to pray for me, so that the Lord may give me the strength to fulfil the vocation entrusted to me by the Holy Church with dignity!”
This is a significant event for the entire Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and the Ukrainian people. For both the UGCC and the Catholic Church in Australia, he will be the only Cardinal. Since the Melbourne Eparchy of the UGCC covers not only Australia but also New Zealand and Oceania, Bishop Mykola will be one of the cardinals of Oceania, together with Cardinals in Wellington, Tonga, Port Morsby, and Dili.
(see the whole article on the Ukrainian Catholic Church – Australia, New Zeland and Oceania website)
Biography of Bishop Mykola Bychok, CSsR.
Bishop Mykola Bychok was born on 13 February 1980 in Ternopil, Ukraine. In 1997, he entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). After religious, philosophical, and theological formation in Ukraine and Poland, at the Redemptorist Major Seminary in Tuchow, he obtained a master and then a license in pastoral theology. He made his perpetual vows on 17 August 2003 and was ordained priest on 3 May 2005.
He was a parish priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Prokopievsk, Russia, a superior and parish priest in Ivano-Frankivsk and a provincial bursar. From 2015 to 2020, he worked at St John the Baptist parish in Newark, USA.
He was then elected Ordinary of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne. On 15 January 2020, Pope Francis confirmed this election. On 7 June 2020, Fr. Bychok received the episcopal chirotonia from the hands of Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The Eparchy of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Melbourne, Australia, was established on 24 June 1982. It was created from the then Apostolic Exarchate for Byzantine Rite Ukrainians in Australia, founded in 1958. The territory of this Greek Catholic diocese covers the whole of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania. Since 1992, it has been led by another Redemptorist, Bishop Petro Stasiuk, who retired in early 2020.
The Redemptorist Congregation has given the Church a total of seven cardinals, 32 archbishops, 145 bishops – a list of
View the list of 21 Cardinals named by Pope Francis: 21 new Cardinals
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