Chicago Cardinal Visits Ukraine
Lviv, Kyiv — Cardinal Francis George, Roman Catholic archbishop of the archdiocese of Chicago, America, finished an eight day trip to Ukraine on 18 May 2005. During his trip, he visited various sites in the Lviv region and Kyiv, including the Ukrainian Catholic University UCU and the Studite monastery in Univ. The trip was organized by UCU and the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation (UCEF), and sponsored by the UCEF.
Cardinal George came to Ukraine at the invitation of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). On 11 May, the two cardinals concelebrated a memorial Divine Liturgy in St. George's Cathedral on the 40th day after the death of Pope John Paul II.
At the end of the Liturgy, Cardinal George told the assembled faithful that it was a great pleasure to take part in prayer for the repose of the soul of Pope John Paul II who, in the cardinal's words, was a true mystic, a person of great prayer, and so he had the heart of a missionary that desired to embrace the whole world.
On 12 May, Cardinal George concelebrated Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine rite at the chapel of the Ukrainian Catholic University. Then he spoke to the students on "The Development of the Church after John Paul II and the Meaning and Role of a Catholic University in the Process."
The UCU press office notes that Cardinal George is the 12th cardinal to visit the institution since it was revived as the Lviv Theological Academy in 1994. That afternoon the cardinal visited Holy Spirit Seminary, another UGCC institution, which his predecessor as cardinal archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, visited in the early 1990s.
On 13 May the cardinal celebrated Mass in Lviv's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption and visited the region's Roman Catholic seminary. On 14 May he visited the town of Peremyshliany, where the 20th century Ukrainian martyr, Blessed Fr. Emilian Kowcz, ministered. On 15 May he concelebrated Divine Liturgy at Holy Dormition Lavra (Major Monastery) of the Studite order in Univ for youth who gathered there as part of an annual foot pilgrimage.
On 16 and 17 May Cardinal George was in Kyiv, where he visited, among other sites, St. Sophia's Cathedral and the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves.
Sources: www.ugcc.org.ua, www.ucu.edu.ua
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