Ukraine to gain three bishops and an exarchate

VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II on January 11 gave his assent to the provisions made by the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for the establishment of an exarchate in Donetsk-Kharkiv and the appointment of two auxiliary bishops for Lviv.

The Synod's provisions were made in accordance with the UGCC's canons, noted the Vatican Information Service (VIS).

An official Vatican release reported the following:

• The erection of the archiepiscopal exarchate of Donetsk-Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the election of the Rev. Stepan Meniok, CSsR, superior of the monastery of St. Alfonso of Lviv, as hierarch of the new exarchate.
  
  
• The election of the Revs. Ihor Vozniak, CSsR, master of novices for the Lviv province of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, and Hlib Lonchyna, MSU, collaborator at the apostolic nunciature in Kyiv, as auxiliaries for the Lviv Eparchy.

The exarch-elect, the Rev. Meniok, is a Redemptorist. He was born in Nakonechne, Ukraine, in 1949 and was ordained a priest in 1981. He was the rector of the Lviv-Rudno seminary for several years.

Bishop-elect Vozniak, a Redemptorist, was born in Lypytsi, Ukraine, in 1952 and was ordained a priest in 1980.

Bishop-elect Lonchyna, a Studite, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1954 and was ordained in 1977. The Rev. Lonchyna taught courses on the Old Testament at the Lviv Theological Academy.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 20, 2002, No. 3, Vol. LXX

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