Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, known as the “spiritual father” of Ukraine, has died aged 84.
Cardinal Husar had inherited a Church “on its knees, suffering post-traumatic shock”, according to Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Borys Gudziak of Paris.
In a post-Soviet era where leadership often meant “a compulsive passion” for money and power, “he lived in exemplary simplicity”, Bishop Gudziak said.
“In Ukrainian folklore, a blind elder is considered a sage,” the bishop said. “He was the wise man of the country, a real father whose embrace, word, warm smile and sense of humour – often self-deprecating – gave people a sense of joy and peace.” He was fluent in five languages, Bishop Gudziak said, “and he could joke in all of them”.
Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who succeeded Cardinal Husar as Archbishop of Kiev-Halych and head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, cried as he spoke to reporters about the cardinal’s death. “He was the spiritual father of the Ukrainian people, and today, in one moment, we became orphans,” Archbishop Shevchuk said.
Asked when Cardinal Husar’s Cause would open, Archbishop Shevchuk replied that everyone who met him saw the beauty of his holiness, but that the canonisation process required prayer and time. Standard Vatican rules require a waiting period of five years.
Born on February 26, 1933, Lubomyr Husar fled Ukraine with his parents in 1944 ahead of the advancing Soviet army. He spent several years in a displaced persons’ camp near Salzburg in Austria. In 1949, he emigrated with his family to the United States, eventually becoming a US citizen.
He was ordained a priest in 1958 and then a bishop in 1977 while the Church in Ukraine was still illegal and operating from exile in Rome.
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, he returned to his native country and served as spiritual director of the seminary in Lviv. He was elected head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in 2001.
In a message to Archbishop Shevchuk, Pope Francis said he had been informed of an “extraordinary influx” of people paying homage to the cardinal’s remains. He said: “This presence is an eloquent sign of who he was: one of the highest and most respected moral authorities of the Ukrainian people in recent decades.”
Pope calls for month of prayer to renew Church’s mission
Pope Francis has called for an “extraordinary month of prayer and reflection” to reinvigorate the missionary spirit of the Catholic Church.
The Pope said that a focus on mission in October 2019 would help “renew the love and passion” of proclaiming the Gospel to everyone. The initiative was proposed by the pontifical mission societies and the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
The announcement came in the text of a speech the Pope wrote, but did not read, on Saturday when he met Cardinal Fernando Filoni, congregation prefect, and people taking part in the pontifical mission societies’ annual meeting in Rome. The mission societies, coordinated under the jurisdiction of the congregation, promote missionary awareness and raise funds for the Church’s work around the globe.
October 2019 was chosen for the month of prayer because it will be the 100th anniversary of Benedict XV’s 1919 apostolic letter, Maximum Illud, on the propagation of the faith throughout the world. “In this very important document … on mission, the pope recalls how necessary a life of holiness is for the effectiveness of the apostolate,” Pope Francis wrote.
Francis meets earthquake victims
Pope Francis met 400 children affected by the earthquakes in central Italy on Saturday.
The Pope told them that they had suffered a calamity but that trusting in God would help them recover from its consequences. “Calamities wound the soul,” he said. “But the Lord helps us to recover.”
Sitting in an atrium outside the Paul VI audience hall, the Pope listened to the children’s experiences of the earthquakes. He then led them in praying the Hail Mary.
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