KYIV – Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, major archbishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, died on May 31, following a serious illness. He was 84.
From January 26, 2001, to February 10, 2011, he headed the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church worldwide and was revered as the Church’s patriarch.
Born in Lviv, on February 26, 1933, Lubomyr Husar fled from Ukraine with his parents in 1944, ahead of the advancing Soviet army. He spent the early post-World War II years among Ukrainian refugees in a displaced persons camp near Salzburg, Austria.
In 1949, he emigrated with his family to the United States. From 1950 to 1954, he studied at St. Basil’s College Seminary in Stamford, Conn. He continued his studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington and at Fordham University in New York.
He was ordained a Ukrainian Catholic priest of the Eparchy of Stamford on March 30, 1958. From 1958 to 1969 Father Husar taught at St. Basil’s College Seminary, and between 1966 and 1969 was the pastor of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kerhonkson, N.Y.
In 1969, Father Husar went to Rome, where he earned a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in 1972. During his stay in Rome he joined the Ukrainian Studite monastic community at the Studion Monastery not far from Castelgandolfo, Italy, and was elected hegumen (superior) of the monastery in 1974.
He was consecrated a bishop in 1977 in the Studion monastery chapel in Castelgandolfo by Patriarch and Cardinal Josyf Slipyj. (The 40th anniversary of his episcopal ordination was marked on April 2 of this year at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection in Kyiv.)
Illya M. Labunka
Patriarch Lubomyr in a photo from 2008.
He was named archimandrite (abbot) of the Studite Monks in Europe and North America in 1978. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Bishop Husar returned to his native country and served as spiritual director of the newly re-established Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv.
In 1994, he established a new Studite monastery near Ternopil, Ukraine. The Synod of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishops elected him exarch of the Archiepiscopal Exarchy of Kyiv-Vyshhorod in 1995. In 1996, the Synod elected him as auxiliary bishop with special administrative delegated authority to Major Archbishop Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky of Lviv. Upon the death of Cardinal Lubachivsky on December 14, 2000, Pope John Paul II named Bishop Husar apostolic administrator of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv.
In January of 2001, the Synod elected him major archbishop – father and head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. The following month, he was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II. In 2001, Cardinal Husar along with the Catholic bishops, clergy and faithful of Ukraine welcomed Pope John Paul II on his first visit to a former Soviet republic.
He also became the first chancellor of the newly established Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Under his leadership on August 21, 2005, the major archiepiscopal see of Kyiv-Halych was officially transferred to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
On February 10, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI announced that he had accepted the resignation of Major Archbishop Husar, in accordance with the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches.
Though he had resigned due to ill health, Cardinal Husar remained active in the ecclesial and social life of Ukraine.