Pope confirms election of Shevchuk to lead Ukrainian Catholics

Pope Benedict XVI has confirmed the election Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk , Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which is the largest Eastern Church in communion with the Holy See.

Bishop Shevchuk, formerly the apostolic administrator of the Eparchy of the Protection of the Blessed Mary in Buenos Aires, was elected to lead the Ukrainian Catholic Church by the 40 bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Synod on March 23. He will be enthroned in Kyiv on March 27.

Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, 40, succeeds Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, who retired in February. Born in 1970, Bishop Shevchuk was ordained as a priest in Lviv in 1994. After graduate studies in theology he taught at the Lviv seminary, and served as personal secretary to Cardinal Husar. In 2009 he became an auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic eparchy in Argentina, and was appointed as apostolic administrator when the previous bishop retired.

One of the youngest Catholic bishops in the world, the new Major Archbishop will lead a Church of over 4 million faithful, making it by far the largest of the Byzantine-rite Catholic churches.

(Photo credit: AFP/Ukranian Greek Catholic Church Press Service)