Lubomyr Husar

Lubomyr Husar, MSU (Ukrainian: Любомир Гузар) (born 26 February 1933) is the major archbishop emeritus of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, a minority church in Ukraine but the largest sui juris Eastern church in full communion with the Holy See. He is also a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. After the recent transfer of the see of Lviv to Kiev in August, 2005, he is now the Ukrainian Catholic Major Archbishop of Kiev-Galicia. In February 2011 he became Major Archeparch Emeritus after he resigned due to ill health.

Biography

Early life and ordination

Born in Lviv, Husar fled with his parents in 1944 during World War II. They briefly lived in Salzburg, Austria, then emigrated to the United States in 1949.^[1]

From 1950 to 1954 he studied at St. Basil College Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut. He studied at The Catholic University of America and Fordham University in the United States, and was ordained a priest on 30 March 1958 for the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford.

Pastoral work

From 1958 to 1969, he taught at St. Basil College Seminary and was pastor at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kerhonkson, New York between 1966 and 1969. In 1969, Husar went to Rome, where he spent three years earning a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University. He then entered the Monastery of the Studites in Grottaferrata in Italy, and was named its Superior in 1974.

Bishop

He was consecrated a bishop in 1977 in the Castel Gandolfo chapel by Major Archbishop Josyf Slipyj without the papal permission (apostolic mandate) in an act which caused many irritations in the Roman Curia,^[2] as Roman canon law required papal permission for the consecration of a bishop, but at that time Eastern canon law did not. He was named Archimandrite (Archabbot) of the Studite Monks in Europe and America in 1978. He organized a new Studite monastery in Ternopil, Ukraine, in 1994, and was elected by the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Church as exarch of the archiepiscopal exarchy of Kiev and Vyshhorod in 1995, confirmed by the Pope the following year. Although once a citizen of the United States, Husar gave up his American citizenship upon returning to his native Ukraine.

Major Archbishop and Cardinal

In December 2000, Pope John Paul II named Husar apostolic administrator of the Ukrainian Greek Major-Archeparchy of Lviv, and in January 2001 the Ukrainian Greek synod elected him Major Archbishop. On 21 February of that year Pope John Paul II created and proclaimed Husar Cardinal-Priest of Santa Sofia a Via Boccea. Cardinal Husar was only one of two Eastern Catholics to participate in the papal conclave, 2005, the other being Ignace Daoud. Nasrallah Sfeir, and Stephanos II Ghattas were both over 80 and therefore could not take part. At that papal conclave, he was one of the cardinals considered papabile, something unusual for an Eastern Catholic.

The major archiepiscopal see of Lviv was moved on 21 August 2005, to the city of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. He is acclaimed by his followers as Patriarch of Kiev-Galicia, a title not recognized by the Holy See.

In October 2007, Husar received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of America in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the first assigning of a bishop of the UGCC to the United States.^[3]

In February 2008, a celebratory liturgy was held in the Basilica of Santa Sophia in Rome on the occasion of the 75th birthday and 50th anniversary of priesthood of Cardinal Husar. The Head of the UGCC was greeted by Pope Benedict XVI, whose address was read by the secretary of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Monsignor Maurizio Malvestiti.^[4]

In 2008 Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree to decorate Cardinal Husar with the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (the 3rd class). He was honoured with the highest state award “for his outstanding personal contribution in spiritual revival of the Ukrainian nation, longstanding church work, and to mark his 75th birthday”,

With failing eyesight forcing him to perform the church's intricate liturgical rites from memory, his early resignation was accepted on 10 February 2011^[5] although normally the major archbishop serves for life. Cardinal Husar's resignation triggers a meeting of the Synod of the Ukrainian church, comprising its global body of bishops, to elect a new major archbishop, which must begin within a month. In the interim, Ihor Vozniak, C.SS.R., Archeparch of Lviv, serves as administrator. The last major archbishop to leave office was in 1882. Once a new major archbishop is elected by the synod the election requires confirmation by the Pope, whereas that of a new patriarch needs to be notified to the Pope who will then extend ecclesiastical communion to the new patriarch. However, a major archbishop has de facto patriarchal status. New major archbischop was selected 23 March and confirmed by pope 25 March 2011

Sources and references

External links

• Cardinalrating pages concerning him
• An interview published in February, 2004 by Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly), Kiev, in Ukrainian and in Russian.
• Biography at catholic-pages.com
• Biography at Catholic-hierarhy.com