Ukrainian American Catholics Mourn Cardinal Lubomyr Husar's Passing

New York, NY (UCCA) - The funeral of the former head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) took place on June 5, 2017 at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv. His Beatitude, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, had served as the titular head of more than 4.5 million faithful from 2001 to 2011. 

Under his leadership, the UGCC, the largest of the sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches, transferred its Metropolitanate seat from Lviv to Kyiv, and conducted the largest number of synods in the church’s history. In 2005, Cardinal Husar became the first Ukrainian Greek Catholic ever to participate in a papal conclave convened to elect a new pope.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), the nation’s largest representative body of Americans of Ukrainian descent, has issued a statement expressing its deep sorrow at the passing of a fellow Ukrainian American, a unique spiritual leader and one of the most respected public intellectuals ever to come from Ukraine.

In the statement, the UCCA recalled His Beatitude’s “American roots,” from a youth spent at Ukrainian American campgrounds, to his days as a community pastor in the Catskills, and his repeated visits as Bishop, Archbishop and eventually Patriarch of Ukrainian Catholics around the world. 

Most notably, he helped the UCCA champion for a National Monument dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932–1933 in Washington D.C., and at the UCCA’s 19th Congress of Ukrainians of America, representing diaspora organizations and leadership from across the United States, Cardinal Husar called upon the delegates and guests to work towards uniting throughout his adopted homeland, remarking that, "The years have shown us that in unity there is strength." 

May His Memory Be Eternal!

Source: The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA)