Spiritual father, pastor, shepherd, ecumenist, sage, intellectual, moral authority. These are some of the words being used to describe Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who died on May 31 at the age of 84.
He was a priest, a bishop (secretly consecrated by Patriarch Josyf in 1977), a cardinal, even a papabile (candidate for pope) after the death of Pope John Paul II. The eminent Vatican correspondent John L. Allen Jr. wrote in October 2001: “I first met Husar, made a cardinal by John Paul II in February, during the pope’s June trip to Ukraine [the first papal visit to a former Soviet republic]. I was impressed by the devotion Husar inspires among the 5.5 million Greek-Catholics in the country, and by how deftly he manages the complex relationship with the Orthodox. …I sat down with Husar again last week in Rome, where he is taking part in the Synod of Bishops. We spent part of a hot afternoon …talking about ecumenism, collegiality and the experience of his people in the 20th century. I came away freshly convinced that Husar should be on papal short lists.”
Though Cardinal Husar’s officially recognized title when he was the primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (from 2001 until 2011, when he retired due to ill health) was major archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, he was revered and referred to as patriarch by the faithful of that Church. And he was not just a leader of a Church, he was a leader of a nation. He was one of Ukraine’s most respected public intellectuals and was active in the First of December Initiative Group (its most recent statement was titled “What Kind of Peace Do We Seek?”). His commentaries in various media outlets enlightened and inspired many of all faiths. The major archbishop emeritus was greatly admired and beloved. Indeed, tens of thousands in Lviv and Kyiv came to pay their last respects to this wise yet humble man.
Writing in the National Review, George Weigel underscored: “..it was Husar who, in retirement, became a moral reference point for a society still deeply wounded by its Soviet past. In a country struggling to shed the bad habits of duplicity engrained during its Communist period, and in a political community whose debates are often more characterized by heat than by light, Lubomyr Husar became a kind of national patriarch: the voice of reason, moderation and wise counsel amidst the cacophony of post-Communist politics. And during the Maidan revolution of dignity in 2013-2014, a now-blind Cardinal Husar could be found on Kyiv’s Independence Square, in solidarity with his people’s hopes for a future beyond corruption, a future in which Ukraine would take its rightful place as an integral part of the West, bringing with it the riches of Byzantine spirituality and culture.”
Lubomyr Husar’s life mirrored that of many diaspora Ukrainians. He was born in Lviv in 1933. His family fled the Soviets in 1944, spent time in a displaced persons camp in Austria and then emigrated to the U.S., where the young Husar completed his university studies. Once he was ordained, he taught at St. Basil’s College Seminary and was pastor of the Ukrainian Catholic parish in Kerhonkson, N.Y., where guests of Soyuzivka came to know him. Members of the Ukrainian American Youth Association knew him as the caring chaplain of their camp in Ellenville, N.Y. Members of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization knew him as a fellow “plastun,” a member of Plast’s Chervona Kalyna fraternity and an actively involved participant of various Plast gatherings. Speaking last August in Kyiv in an informal setting to delegates at the worldwide Conference of Ukrainian Plast Organizations, Cardinal Husar shared his personal reflections about the organization that he said he’d joined nearly 70 years earlier and the importance of rearing new generations of nationally conscious Ukrainian citizens.
Speaking of the future of his country, Cardinal Husar once said: “What our native Ukraine will be like depends on us, on all of us. …Everything depends on how much good we wish to all the citizens of our country and how much we are willing to do to make that come true. Not some good-sounding words, but particular positive actions… In other words, Ukraine will be what we make it. I want to emphasize: we, all of us, are at the service of truth, goodness and beauty.”
To the faithful and all who sought his counsel he offered these both simple and profound words: “Here is my request to you: pray and work.”
Ukrainians, all of us, will sorely miss this “master of wisdom,… a Christian, a Ukrainian passionate about his identity, always full of hope and open to God’s future” as Pope Francis described him. Вічная пам’ять (Eternal memory).