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CWN - Pope Francis has sent a special message to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, for the funeral of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the former Major Archbishop of the Byzantine Church.

In his message the Pope acknowledged the important role that Cardinal Husar had played in the revival of the Ukrainian Catholic Church after decades of Communist repression. He said that the deceased prelate had rallied the Church, “gathered from the ‘catacombs’ where she was forced to flee persecution, and to whom he restored not only the ecclesiastical structures, but above all the joy of her history, founded on faith through and beyond any suffering.”

Pope Francis said that he was prompted to write because of “the extraordinary influx of people who in these days have come to pay homage to the mortal remains of the cardinal.” His message was relayed in a letter to the current Major Arcbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cardinal Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

References:

• Letter of the Holy Father to His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk (Vatican press office)
• Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, former leader of Ukrainian Catholic Church, dead at 84 (CWN, 6/1)