Sviatoslav Down Under

Tuesday 9 September 2014

13 days, 5 States, 9 Parishes and 9,000 kilometres of domestic air travel. This blog will attempt to record and inform you about the First Pastoral Visit to Australia ( "Down under") by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Visit will begin in Perth, Western Australia, with the arrival of His Beatitude together with His Grace Bishop Peter Eparch of Australia and New Zealand on Wednesday 17 September and conclude with his departure from Brisbane on Tuesday 30 September. I am privileged to accompany the Patriarch on his Australian visit. Please pray for a safe and successful visit.

Prayer before a Journey

O Lord Jesus Christ our God, the true and living way, be Thou, O Master, our companion, guide, and guardian during our journey; deliver and protect us from all danger, misfortune, and temptation, that being so defended by Your divine power we may have a peaceful and successful journey and arrive safely at our destination. For in You we put our trust and hope, and to You, together with Your Eternal Father and the All-Holy Spirit, we ascribe all praise, honor, and glory, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

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About Patriarch Sviatoslav

In March 2011, at the age of 40, Sviatoslav Shevchuk was elected Major Archbishop and Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Despite its forced dissolution at gunpoint under Soviet rule in 1946 and subsequent half-century of, the Ukrainian Catholic Church has survived and is now being re-invigorated under Patriarch Sviatoslav’s leadership.

Sviatoslav Shevchuk was born May 5, 1970 in Stryi, Ukraine. He began his religious education in 1991-1992 at the Don Bosco theological seminary in Buenos Aires, then at the Lviv Theological Seminary from 1992 to 1994. Following his ordination to the priesthood on June 26, 1994, Father Sviatoslav studied at the Papal University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where he received his doctoral in theological anthropology. His research concerned the moral roots of theology in the Byzantine theological tradition. From 2002 to 2005 Father Sviatoslav Shevchuk served as personal secretary to His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, head of the Patriarchal Curia in Lviv. From 1999 to 2009 Father Sviatoslav served as prefect, vice rector and rector of Holy Spirit Seminary in Lviv. In 2001 he was appointed vice-dean of the theology department at the Lviv Theological Academy (now the Ukrainian Catholic University).

After his Episcopal ordination on April 7 2009, he became Auxiliary bishop and later Apostolic Administrator for the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Argentina, and worked closely with Latin-rite Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now better known as His Holiness Pope Francis.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church today is the biggest Eastern Catholic Church in the world with more than 5.5 million faithful. After almost half a century of persecution under Soviet rule, the Church has resurfaced as one of the pillars of national identity in Ukraine.

Throughout the current political and social turmoil in Ukraine, Patriarch Sviatoslav has called for peace. He has brought together political and social figures to assist in developing the dialogue necessary for a peaceful solution.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav’s native language is Ukrainian. He is fluent in many languages including English, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese.