Koltun named bishop for Kyiv (11/17/96)

Koltun named bishop for Kyiv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church appointed Bishop Mykhail Koltun as the new exarch of the Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarchate on November 13.

He replaces Bishop Lubomyr Husar, who was bestowed extraordinary powers as auxiliary bishop to the leader of the Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, on October 14 by the Synod of Bishops. Bishop Husar was head of the Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarchate for little more than six months before being elevated to assist the ailing Archbishop Lubachivsky.

Rome confirmed the new posting of Bishop Koltun, who will temporarily retain his position as leader of the Zboriv Exarchate.

The new bishop of Kyiv-Vyshhorod, who was born on March 28, 1949, has had a dramatic rise through the ranks of the Church. He was installed a bishop in September of 1993, the first bishop consecrated in Ukraine from the time the Church went underground in 1946.

The installation took place at St. George Cathedral in Lviv, the seat of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and was concelebrated by Cardinal Lubachivsky and Archbishop Vasyl Sterniuk, as well as Bishop Sofron Dmyterko of the Ivano-Frankivsk Exarchate.

Merely 12 years had passed since Archbishop Sterniuk ordained him a priest in 1981. In those years he had also held the title of vicar of the Redemptorist Fathers of Lviv.

With his installation as Kyiv exarch, scheduled for December 22, Bishop Koltun becomes the head of the newest exarchate in Ukraine and the one that one day the Church hopes to make its seat, according to Bishop Husar. Speaking at the November 13 press conference at which Bishop Koltun was announced as the new Kyiv-Vyshhorod leader (although he was not present), Bishop Husar said it is only natural that Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and center of Ukrainian Christianity, eventually become the seat of the Greek-Catholic Church.

In other remarks, he said that scheduled celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the Brest Union in Kyiv had been canceled because the Church had not received permission from the Ukrainian government. He made no comment as to why the government refused the Church's request to hold celebrations at the Kyiv Opera House.