1. Liubomyr Huzar MSU was the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the first elected in independent Ukraine.
15 Facts About Liubomyr Huzar
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Liubomyr Huzar was born in the city of Lwow, in the family of Yaroslav Huzar and Rostyslava Demchuk.
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In 1969, Liubomyr Huzar went to Rome, where he spent three years earning a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University.
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Liubomyr Huzar then entered the Monastery of the Studites in Castel Gandolfo in Italy, and was named its Superior in 1974.
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Liubomyr Huzar was consecrated a bishop in 1977 in the Castel Gandolfo chapel by Major Archbishop Josyf Slipyj with help of titular bishop of Zigris Ivan Prasko and bishop of Toronto Isidore Borecky without papal approval in an act which caused many irritations in the Roman Curia, as Roman Canon Law required papal permission for the consecration of a bishop, while the Canons of the Eastern Churches did not.
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Liubomyr Huzar was named Archimandrite of the Studite Monks in Europe and America in 1978.
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Liubomyr Huzar organised a new Saint Theodore the Studite monastery in Kolodiivka, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine, in 1994, and was elected by the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Church as exarch of the archiepiscopal exarchy of Kyiv and Vyshhorod in 1995, confirmed by the Pope the following year by nominating to the titular see of Nisa di Licia.
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Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar was one of the three Eastern Catholics to participate in the papal conclave, 2005, the others being Ignace Daoud of the Syriac Catholic Church and Varkey Vithayathil of the Syro-Malabar Church.
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Also at that conclave, Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar was the first Major-Archbishop from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church ever to participate in a papal conclave as cardinal-elector.
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Liubomyr Huzar was acclaimed by his followers as Patriarch of Kyiv-Galicia, a title not recognised by the Holy See.
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In October 2007, Liubomyr Huzar 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.
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Liubomyr Huzar 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".
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Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar's resignation triggered 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.
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On 26 February 2013,2 days before the announced resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar turned 80 and lost his right to participate in a conclave.
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Liubomyr Huzar died on 31 May 2017 at the age of 84.