PHOTO FOLLOW-UP: Funeral of Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky

LVIV - Tens of thousands of faithful lined the streets of Lviv on December 20, 2000, for the funeral of Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, archbishop major and head of the 7-million-strong Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The 86-year old, who had suffered heart problems and was rarely seen in public in the last few years, died on December 14 of complications from pneumonia. Some 200,000 people viewed the remains of the last UGCC leader of the 20th century at St. George Cathedral in Lviv during the five days prior to the burial.

The funeral was preceded by a nearly 2-kilometer procession that snaked through the streets of this historic city for two and a half hours in a driving snow. People watched on the street and from balconies as the red casket of the late primate passed many of the local landmarks, such as the Taras Shevchenko Monument and the sculpture of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, the primate's predecessor. The procession was led by seminarians of the Lviv Theological Seminary, who carried a painting of Cardinal Lubachivsky. They were followed by nuns and monks of the various UGCC orders, then by priests, and finally by the bishops of the Church.

Among those taking part in the funeral services were Vatican representatives Cardinal Achilles Silvestrini, head of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches, Archbishop Mykola Eterovic, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, and nine Roman Catholic bishops, among them leaders of the Polish Church. Also on hand were representatives of two of the three Ukrainian Orthodox confessions: Bishop Andrii of the UOC - Kyiv Patriarchate, who is the secretary of the clerical synod, and Rev. Mykola Kavchuk of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, who is the head of its Patriarchal Court.

Ivan Hel, a long-time UGCC activist who spent time in the Soviet prisons for defending the faith, said in his eulogy that Cardinal Lubachivsky had laid the foundation for the new Church that sprang from the demise of the Soviet Union.

Hundreds of UGCC priests packed the interior of St. George's Cathedral during the funeral services, while thousands of faithful listened from speakers placed on the street outside the church as Archbishop Eterovic read official condolences from Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Silvestrini extended personal condolences from the pontiff.

- Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 14, 2001, No. 2, Vol. LXIX

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