His Beatitude, Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, MSU, 78, retired from serving the Ukrainian Catholic Church today. The Holy Father accepted the Cardinal’s request to retired due to health concerns. He has served the Church in his present position since 2001.
His Beatitude has been a bishop since 1977. Husar has done a terrific job for the Church these past years and is owed a debt of gratitude.
The Cardinal has a terrific sense of humor, friendly and insightful. My sadness is that he never was granted the title of Patriarch, a title he’s entitled to use given the state of his Church but the pope’s have been reticent to grant the patriarch’s title in fear of what the Russian Orthodox Church would say.
CNS’ Cindy Wooden’s article on His Beatitude’s resignation; looking to the future…
I’m a member of the UGCC. His Blessedness Lubomyr is indeed called and prayed for by us as “Patriarch.”
BUT as you are aware, this title “Patriarch” is not one granted by THE authority of the Church, i.e., the bishop of Rome. You may being calling Cardinal Husar “Patriarch,” and probably correctly, but the title was never conferred. While there are many of us who believe he should have been acknowledge by the Holy See as such, he was only given the title of Major Archbishop.