Sviatoslav Shevchuk

Priesthood

Shevchuk was ordained as a priest on 26 June 1994. He is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Angelicum where he earned a Doctorate in theology in 1999. After completing his theological training Shevchuk served as rector of the seminary of Lviv. From 2002 to 2005 he worked as head of the secretariat of Major Archbishop Lubomyr Husar.

Episcopacy

Shevchuk was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires on 14 January 2009 and consecrated by Archbishop Ihor Vozniak on 7 April 2009. On 10 April 2010, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the same diocese upon the retirement of Bishop Miguel Mykycej.

Major Archiespiscopacy

On 23 March 2011, Shevchuk was elected Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to replace Major Archbishop Lubomyr Husar, who had retired for health reasons. This decision was confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI on 25 March 2011.

Enthronement

Shevchuk was enthroned as Major Archbishop on 27 March 2011 in the UGCC's new mother church, the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kiev, which was still under construction at the time. This made him the first new primate to be enthroned in Kiev in 400 years.

Representatives of all three main branches of Ukrainian Eastern Orthodoxy were present for his enthronement, including Metropolitan Mefodiy (UOAC), Metropolitan Volodymyr (UOC-MP), and Bishop Yevstratiy (UOC-KP).

Visits to Canada

On 31 May 2012, Patriarch Sviatoslav held his first pastoral visit to Canada. He visited Edmonton after being met by Eparch David Motiuk and other clergy upon his arrival in Calgary. He attended events at St. Josaphat Cathedral and St. George Parish. On 2 June, the head of the UGCC celebrated the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Parish of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God in Calgary. He again returned to Canada later in 2012, and on Sunday, 9 September, after the participants took an oath the previous day, Major Archbishop Shevchuk celebrated the Divine Liturgy to open a worldwide Ukrainian Catholic Synod of Bishops at Saints Volodymyr and Olha Cathedral in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

He visited Miller Comprehensive High School and stopped at St. Basil's Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. Athanasius Ukrainian Catholic Church, on 21 September 2012 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He stopped in Vancouver to mark the 100th anniversary of the first Canadian visit of a Ukrainian Catholic bishop. In May 2014, he again visited Canada to speak at the University of Toronto's Sheptytski Institute. The event opened with an invocation by Cardinal Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto and Chancellor of the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. Cardinal Collins added special prayers for Ukraine.

On the Patriarchal Title

On 29 March 2011, Major Archbishop Shevchuk said "I'm departing with my bishops and all of the metropolitans of our church to Rome, because it's our duty to make a courtesy visit to the Holy Father (i.e., the Pope)," he said a press conference in Kyiv. The UGCC leader said that the UGCC Synod of Bishops had prepared a number of proposals for the Pope. "We're really going to tell of how our church is developing and that each developing church [becomes] a patriarchate, because a patriarchate is a period in the completion of the development of a church," he said.

Cardinal Slipyj in the 1960s already petitioned for the patriarchal title. Instead, Pope Paul VI responded by devising the rank of "Major Archbishop", which grants all the prerogatives of an Eastern patriarch to the head of a self-governing church in full communion, just without the title itself. On 12 June 2012 Major Archbishop Shevchuk was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

On his own Election

In April 2011, Shevchuk said while visiting Rome to meet Pope Benedict XVI, that he believes he was elected "despite my age". Ukrainian bishops from around the world, who met in a synod in late March to elect a new Major Archbishop for their church, were looking for a leader who could "unite the church in Ukraine and outside Ukraine", who could "promote the unity of Christians in Ukraine and establish some sort of dialogue with the new Ukrainian government ... The No. 1 priority for each head of a church is evangelization, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in today's world ... Of course, our church is growing, is developing its structures ... but we are conscious that the decision about the patriarchate belongs to the Holy Father and we would never press him. We respect his freedom." Major Archbishop Shevchuk said his age is not really so shocking when one considers that the average age of his priests is about 35. "In our tradition, we do have a married clergy, but a married clergy is not the main reason we have so many young priests", he added.

On 22 June 2011 Major Archbishop Shevchuk was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches to a five-year term. It may be renewed every five years until his 80th birthday.

On Meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch

When asked in April 2011 whether he would wish to meet the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, Shevchuk said that "I would like very much to visit him and hold a personal meeting with him. I am convinced that in peacefully and openly communicating with each other, we can relieve any tension ... I think that today, we should heal the wounds rather than irritate and deepen them. One can heal the wounds of our memory only with mutual forgiveness. Therefore, as for any our brethren or neighbors who wounded us or were wounded by us, the best way to communicate is to be open in a brotherly dialogue, be open to the purification of our memory, to ask for forgiveness and to forgive".