Greek Catholics have new Chicago bishop

WASHINGTON (CNS) - Pope Francis has named Ukrainian-born Bishop Venedykt "Valery" Aleksiychuk as bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago.

Bishop Aleksiychuk, 49, has been auxiliary bishop of the Archeparchy of Lviv, Ukraine, since 2010.

The appointment was announced April 20 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

He succeeds Bishop Richard S. Seminack, who died Aug. 16, 2016, after a long battle with a heart ailment. Bishop Aleksiychuk will be the fifth head of the eparchy.

The Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago has 46 parishes and missions in 16 states. About 70 priests and deacons serve the eparchy, which has a Catholic population of about 11,000.

Valery Aleksiychuk was born Jan. 16, 1968, in Borshchivka, Ukraine. He pursued seminary studies and was ordained a priest March 29, 1992. He is a Ukrainian Studite monk. He was named auxiliary bishop of Lviv Aug. 3, 2010, and ordained a bishop Sept. 5, 2010.

"The hierarchy, clergy, religious and faithful of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in USA joyfully rejoice" about the pope's appointment of Bishop Aleksiychuk to the Chicago-based eparchy, said Archbishop Stefan Soroka of Philadelphia, who is metropolitan of U.S. Ukrainian Catholics in the United States.

"Let us offer prayers of thanksgiving to almighty God for the blessing of a new chief shepherd for the St. Nicholas Eparchy," he said in a statement. "Let us offer prayers for Bishop Venedykt as he joyfully undertakes this new journey, under the protection and guidance of the mother of God."

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 20, 2017 at 11:41 PM

    Axios. Many years

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve_BarrieApril 21, 2017 at 11:25 AM

    I can't remember: is St. Nicholas Cathedral the original old-time cathedral in Chicago or the new parish that was established in the late 1960's in protest of the adoption of the new calendar?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr. ButcherApril 21, 2017 at 10:08 PM

    The former...

    ReplyDelete
  4. BorisJojicjApril 25, 2017 at 10:42 AM

    Great! A Greek Catholic bishop who looks just like one of ours, so that any Orthodox person seeing him in the street would go up to him for a blessing.
    What would the papal church say if there were a college in Athens, Sofia, or Moscow which trained cadres of clean shaven, Roman-collared priests to serve the Latin mass and preach in Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, trying to convince Latins that they were priests of the papal church, when they are not.
    That's why I oppose the Western Rite movement in Orthodoxy.

    ReplyDelete

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