{"id":218135,"date":"2025-04-22T12:21:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T09:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/df.news\/?p=218135"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:24:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T06:24:06","slug":"ethnic-ukrainian-cardinal-to-help-choose-next-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/2025\/04\/22\/ethnic-ukrainian-cardinal-to-help-choose-next-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Ukrainian cardinal to help choose next Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a cardinal under the age of 80, the Ukrainian-born priest will be one of the select few Catholic leaders to gather in the Vatican for the papal conclave, according to The Guardian.<\/a><\/p>\n

A 45-year-old Ukrainian-born Melbourne bishop who will be among the world\u2019s top-ranking Catholic officials who will vote to select the next pope says he is filled with sadness over Pope Francis\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Mykola Bychok, Australia\u2019s highest ranking Catholic official after Francis made him a cardinal late last year, is currently on his way to the Middle East for a pilgrimage but will travel on to Rome for the funeral and then the papal conclave.<\/p>\n

In a statement released on Monday night, Cardinal Bychok paid tribute to Francis as \u201ca Pope for the marginalised and those on the periphery\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a man of simple piety who strove to bring the church closer to people. His gave freely of his gifts and had a unique personal approach to all he met.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Francis was a Pope of peace. In a world devastated by war he called for peace and justice. I am grateful for the late Holy Father\u2019s frequent appeals for a just peace in Ukraine and for the efforts of the Holy See that he oversaw, known and secret, that in some way helped bring relief to the imprisoned and suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bychok is the Catholic church\u2019s youngest cardinal and the first Australian to be made cardinal since George Pell. He is also just the eighth cardinal from Australia.<\/p>\n

He will be one of about 135 cardinals from around the world eligible to take part in the conclave.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also ask for your prayers for the Cardinal Electors that will be meeting in Conclave, that the Holy Spirit may enlighten our hearts and minds that we may choose a worthy candidate as the 267th Bishop of Rome and Successor of Saint Peter,\u201d Bychok said.<\/p>\n

Bychok was born in the Ukrainian city of Ternopil, and entered a monastery after finishing high school, before becoming ordained as a priest in Lviv.<\/p>\n

He served as a priest in several countries including in Poland and the US, before moving to Melbourne in January 2020 to serve as the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt a calling to follow Christ at the age of 15, when he was in 9th grade,\u201d a biography on his church\u2019s website said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a cardinal under the age of 80, the Ukrainian-born priest will be one of the select few Catholic leaders to gather in the Vatican for the papal conclave, according to The Guardian. A 45-year-old Ukrainian-born Melbourne bishop who will be among the world\u2019s top-ranking Catholic officials who will vote to select the next pope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":218035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5148,5142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-church-en","8":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/219700c6ef9d638f5868f0bff4f5ad0d.webp?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218136,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218135\/revisions\/218136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}