Turning the pages back...

December 29, 1980

Twenty years ago, on December 29, 1980, the Rev. Stephen Sulyk was named by Pope John Paul II as the spiritual leader of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States.

Metropolitan Sulyk was born in the village of Balnytsia, in Lemkivschyna. He studied in Germany at a seminary for Ukrainian Catholic priests in exile and then emigrated in 1948 to the United States, where he completed his theological studies at The Catholic University of America. He was ordained a priest in 1952 by Archbishop-Metropolitan Constantine Bohachevsky and served parishes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and New Jersey.

Having been chosen by the pontiff from a list of candidates for the metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics submitted by the Synod of Ukrainian Catholic Bishops, he was ordained a bishop by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj in Rome on March 1, 1981, and then was installed as metropolitan of the Philadelphia Archeparchy on March 31 by Archbishop Pio Laghi, then apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Recently Archbishop Sulyk submitted his resignation as metropolitan to Pope John Paul II. The pope has named Auxiliary Bishop Stefan Soroka of Winnipeg to head the Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Source: "Philadelphia Prepares to Welcome New Bishop," The Way, December 3, 2000.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 24, 2000, No. 52, Vol. LXVIII

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