The 45-year-old bishop of Ukrainian origin of Mykol Gobyk from Melbourne will become one of the highest Catholic hierarchs of the world that will vote for the election of the next dad, writes The Guardian.
At the end of last year, the deceased Pope Francis proclaimed him cardinal. Gobby is the youngest cardinal in the Catholic Church and the first Australian appointed by Cardinal after George Pell. He became the eighth cardinal from Australia.
Goby was born in Ukrainian Ternopol. After graduation, he went to the monastery, and was subsequently ordained in priests in Lviv.
He served as a priest in Poland, the USA and other countries, and in January 2020 he moved to Melbourne to become the diocese of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
As a cardinal up to 80 years, the bull will enter the chosen circle of Catholic leaders who will gather in the Vatican for voting on the Conclave in the coming weeks, where they will choose a new dad.
Francis appointed bull Cardinal, bypassing the attention of other well -known Catholic hierarchs of Australia, such as Archbishop Sydney Anthony Fisher and his Melbourns colleague Peter Komensoli.
At the Vatican ceremony in December, when he was proclaimed a cardinal, the bull said that Pope Francis turned to him in Ukrainian, saying: “Glory to Jesus Christ”.
“It was an emergency for my support for me,” he said in an interview with ABC.
The appointment of a bull Cardinal was solemnly noted both in Australia and in Ukraine. He repeatedly spoke about the suffering of his homeland since the beginning of Russia's invasion in 2022.
“This is a real genocide of our people, because Russia is waging a war with the army, with the soldiers, and they kill our people,” he said in an interview.
“We cannot celebrate Easter this year without turning our thoughts and prayers to our suffering homeland - Ukraine. The war continues to bring destruction, pain and despair. And even here, in the shadow of the cross, we hold on a vow of an empty coffin. We live in the hope that this unfair aggression will be stopped and that a fair and long world will be established. As Papa Saint John Pavel II once said: Do not give himself captive to despair, ”the Believers say in his Easter Epistle.
Currently, Cardinal UGCC Nikolay Govchik is in pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After that, he will go to Rome to take part in the funeral rites of Pope Francis and in the Conclave.
“On December 7, 2024, when I was promoted to a collegium of cardinals, I asked the holy father to pray for Ukraine, to help free the stolen Ukrainian children and pray for me in my new mission of the Australian-Ukrainian cardinal.
Now I pray for Pope Francis to stand before Christ for the people of Australia and Ukraine, and so that God gives me grace to live my mission of the Cardinal of the Catholic Church, ”wrote the cardinal in social networks.
In one of the interviews to the question about his own prospects to lead the Catholic Church of Mykol Gobby answered:.
“Of course, every cardinal can be elected to the Holy Father. However, for me this is something from the field of fantasy. Because I never thought I would be elected to the bishop. Now I have already become a cardinal. This is potentially possible, but as it will really be, God will show, ”he said.