His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar) leaves the office of Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

On February 10th at a press conference in Kyiv His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar) announced that today Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation from the office of Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). A request regarding this matter had been sent to the Holy Father by the Head of the UGCC when he turned 75 years of age. "Today, when I do not have as much strength, I would like to hand over the office to my successor, who will continue to work in a very efficient way. For it is not my work and I am not the key. The key is the Church, the goal of our work is service to the Church, and we try to do it as long as we can do it effectively, "- declared His Beatitude Lubomyr, explaining his decision. After relinquising the guidance of the Church, His Beatitude does not intend to completely remove himself  from the life of the Church and society. "I will be doing what I am still able to do. I will pray for the Church, contemplate  the past, and ensure that nothing of our Church’s past is lost. I would also like to meet with youth and with different professional groups, "- says His Beatitude Lubomyr.  Later this month His Beatitude will meet with students of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and will start work on his second audio trilogy  titled "Society" which will include audio books: "Society and Government," "Society and Business", "Society and Law". "According to canon law, the new Administrator of the UGCC will be Archbishop of Lviv, Most Rev. Ihor (Voznyak), until a new Head of the Church is elected. Within the next two months the Synod of Bishops  will meet to elect a new Head of the Church.  His Beatitude will maintain all titles and honors due to his office ", said the Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Bishop of the Curia, Most Rev. Bohdan (Dziurakh). His Beatitude became the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church ten years ago after the death of his predecessor Myroslav Ivan (Lubachivskyi). He was the first head of the Church to be elected by a special Synod of Bishops following the emergence of the Church from the underground and the independence of Ukraine.  During the time of his leadership of the Church,  the seat of the Head of the UGCC was returned to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, from St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv.  The Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ and the Patriarchal Center of the UGCC are currently completing construction in Kyiv.

Information Department of the UGCC

UGCC Today Today the UGCC includes more than 5.5 million faithful in Ukraine; furthermore, there are about 1.5 million Greek Catholics in Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The Major Archbishopric in Ukraine incorporates 12 eparchies and exarchates. According to the statistics of State Department for Religious Affairs in Ukraine, on January 1, 2010, the UGCC counted the following: 3,597 registered communities, 2,347 priests, 1,248 monks and nuns, 3,581 churches, 1,138 Sunday schools, 105 monasteries, 27 periodicals, 15 schools with 1,273 students, the main of which is the Ukrainian Catholic University. Today the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC includes 50 hierarchs from Ukraine and abroad. Outside of Ukraine to the Major Archbishopric belong the following: Peremyshl-Warsaw Greek Catholic Metropolitanate in Poland (Peremyshl -Warsaw Archeparchy and Wroclaw-Gdansk eparchy have over 300 thousands of faithful in 100 parishes), three apostolic exarchates for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Germany, France and UK, two Greek Catholic arceparchies in North America: United States and Canada (U.S. - Philadelphia Archeparchy, consisting of eparchies in Philadelphia, Parma, Chicago and Stamford; in Canada - Winnipeg Archeparchy including eparchies in Winnipeg, Edmonton, New Westminster, Saskatoon and Toronto). In addition, there eparchies of the UGCC in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Curitiba, Brazil; and Melbourne (Australia). Ukrainian Greek Catholics have also Vicariate in Romania, a community in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova , Austria, Paraguay, Venezuela, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Kazakhstan and Russia. The church offers spiritual care to the faithful in the countries of last wave of immigrants from Ukraine.

Legal information
Father PhD. Vitaliy Tokar, head of Legal Department of the Patriarchal Curia of UGCC: According to the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches, which is the main legislative compendium of the church, in effect since 1991, and according to the particular church law, due to the abdication of the Major Archbishop the Archiepiscopal See became vacant. Such a situation is possible due to death or resignation (Canon 126, § 1). The resignation is optional, and rather based on the right to resign by the Major Archbishop from his government but it does not is his duty (Canon 967).

Background information When did His Beatitude Lubomyr start to think about his resignation from the goverment? www.youtube.com/watch?v=CalTjq322dE What sre the reasons of his resignation? www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nB9sN6G0yU Are there any people in the UGCC today who are qualified to continue His Beatitudes legacy? www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPg80Mcy7vs How does His Beatitude Lubomyr evaluate the current state of the UGCC? www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8jzrNdiOfQ Photo slideshow about His Beatitude Lubomyr: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLIrZTf8w2U The first sermon of His Beatitude Lubomyr on January 28, 2001, on the day of His enthronization: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFr20F2c7g