HIS BEATITUDE SVIATOSLAV GIVES EMOTIONAL PRESS BRIEFING
June 1, 2017
“IN ONE MOMENT WE WERE LEFT ORPHANS”
HIS BEATITUDE SVIATOSLAV GIVES EMOTIONAL PRESS BRIEFING
At a press conference held inside the entrance of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection in Kyiv, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, officially announced the death of his predecessor, His Beatitude, Major Archbishop and Cardinal Lubomyr Husar and laid out the elaborate funeral schedule. At times his emotion visibly overcame him as he spoke lovingly about his years of experience with Cardinal Husar both in ministry and on a personal level. At one point, the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church said that, “in an instant we were made orphans” – an expression that conved his sentiments and certainly the mood of many faithful of the Church in Ukraine and around the world.
The passing of His Beatitude Lubomyr certainly will be seen as the passing of an era, as he was directly connected to the legendary Patriarch Josef Slipyj and the latter’s monumental struggle for the revitalization of the Ukrainian Church in the diaspora as well as in Ukraine which was then banned under Communist rule.
Blazhenishyj Sviatoslav explained that the earthly remains of Cardinal Husar will be taken first to the city of Lviv as it was both the place of his birth and also the city where we was enthroned as the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church before he successfully transferred the See to its historically rightful location in the capital, Kyiv. Then the coffin will make its way back to Kyiv where the funeral services will take place on Sunday evening and the final Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and interment will take place on Monday morning, June 5th.
In Lviv from today, a series of Liturgies will be celebrated in Lviv – at both the historic Cathedral of St. George and the Studite Monastery church of St. Michael. There will be processions through the streets. His remains will lie in state day and night so that the masses can pass by to pay their last respects and “bid farewell”.
The coffin will be brought to Kyiv Saturday night to the Cathedral of the Resurrection where His Beatitude Lubomyr will, once again, lie is state “day and night” throughout the Pentecost services, including the “kneeling prayers”. On Monday, June 5th, the final funeral Hierarchical (Pontifical) Divine Liturgy will take place and his remains will be interred in the crypt of the Cathedral. His burial in the crypt, His Beatitude Sviatoslav said, will serve as a kind of spiritual and moral “great and immovable cornerstone” of the Cathedral.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav asked that as we pray for the eternal rest of the soul of the late Cardinal that we would also remember the request that he made in Kyiv on April 2 when the community celebrated the 40th anniversary of his episcopal consecration. It was then His Beatitude Lubomyr asked the faithful to, “pray, pray for our Church that it would develop, that it would give glory to God and serve the Ukrainian people”.
A requiem service at Knyazhychi near Ukraine. In this small town is located, besides a parish church, also the official residence of the Head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Seminary of the Kyiv Archeparchy. In the video, the local religious community and faithful gather at the residence as Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh, CSsR) and the Seminarians lead a “panakhyda” service. This is the first of many funeral services to take place over the next 5 days.
