OBITUARY: Bishop Platon Kornyljak, former apostolic exarch in Germany
MUNICH, Germany - Bishop Platon Kornyljak, 80, one-time apostolic exarch for Ukrainian Catholics in Germany and Scandinavia, died on November 1, following a lengthy illness. He had been a priest for 55 years and a bishop for 41 years.
Born in Stebni, Bukovyna, Ukraine, on September 6, 1920, the son of Volodyslav and Eugenia Grybowska, he studied at the Pontifical University Urbanianum, earning a baccalaureate in philosophy in 1941 and a doctorate in sacred theology in 1946, and at the Pontifical University Gregorianum, where he was awarded a licentiate in philosophy in 1947 and a doctorate in philosophy in 1948.
He was ordained by Bishop Ivan Buchko in Rome on March 25, 1945. The Rev. Kornyljak emigrated to the United States in 1948 and was assigned as an assistant pastor to Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church in Olyphant, Pa.
Later that year he was named assistant at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Philadelphia, where he served until 1952. In 1950 he was appointed to serve as secretary to the metropolitan-archbishop of Philadelphia, and then, in 1952 he assumed the role of chancellor of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, a position he held until 1958.
He was appointed the first apostolic exarch of Germany on April 17,1959.
It was via the apostolic letter "Cum ob Immane" that Pope John XXIII had established an exarchate in Germany "to make provisions for the community of those who on account of the war fled from Galicia and Carpathia, and settled and dwell in Germany."
The Rev. Kornyljak was ordained a bishop on July 7 in Immaculate Conception Cathedral by Archbishop Constantine Bohachevsky, Bishop Ambrose Senyshyn and Bishop Joseph Schmondiuk.
Bishop Kornyljak served as exarch until illness forced his resignation on Jan 14, 1996.
A funeral liturgy was celebrated November 7 in Protection of the Blessed Virgin of May Cathedral in Munich. Interment was in Waldfriedhof Cemetery.
- Reprinted from The Sower, November 26.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 17, 2000, No. 51, Vol. LXVIII
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