VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — The world’s youngest cardinal, Cardinal Mykola Bychok, urged Catholics, especially Western countries, to “rediscover true connection with Christ” in order to foster the work of evangelization.
“We need true witnesses of Christ,” Cardinal Mykola Bychok said Friday.
Bychok, created a cardinal in the December 7 consistory by Pope Francis, is now the youngest cardinal in the Catholic Church at 44 years old. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a sui juris church in communion with the Holy See and led by Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Bychok leads the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia.
After being named by Pope Francis in October as part of the upcoming consistory, Bychok emphasized two key themes that he wished to focus on as a newly minted cardinal – peacemaking and a need for evangelization.
Speaking to LifeSiteNews the day before he was made a cardinal, Bychok commented on the crisis of declining faith in the West and the importance of the martyrs’ witness to that same Catholic faith.
“We should rediscover true connection with Christ, especially for Europe, in these capitalistic countries where secularization is,” and where, Bychok added, “our people are overwhelmed by secularized work. We should rediscover the Gospel, we should rediscover close connection to Christ.”
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Once a “good connection with Christ” is made then “we will have good connection with each other,” the cardinal continued.
In October, Bychok cited the example of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, who was Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) and jailed in a Soviet gulag prison camp from 1945 to 1963.
Based in Rome after his release, Slipyj dedicated much time to traveling to UGCC communities across the globe, though he was prohibited from returning to his native Ukraine by the Soviets.
Bychok commented that when Slipyj finally returned to Rome in 1963 – after pressure on the Soviets from Pope John XXIII and President John F. Kennedy – he was “like a true witness of Christ, of the faith.”
Drawing on the witness of Catholics persecuted by the Communist regime, Bychok noted to LifeSite that Christian persecution persists “in many countries.”
The persecuted Christians “are true witnesses of Christ, they are not changing their belief: due to that reason, we have many martyrs who were very zealous in their faith until martyrdom.”
Questioned about the disparity between Western nations and those countries where Christians are experiencing persecution, Bychok opined that for “capitalistic countries, secularized world” it is “difficult to understand for this.”
Bychok was visibly prominent during Saturday’s consistory, with his use of the UGCC liturgical dress and the more traditional head covering of the koukoulion setting him notably apart from the predominant number of the other 20 cardinals.
He also welcomed his appointment as a cardinal as an honor for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as well as for the Church in Australia – a country in which he is now the only cardinal. As Australia’s only cardinal, Bychok has been careful to point out that his role is for the Australian Catholics at large, not just his Ukrainian Catholic community.
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Citing this again during a ceremony in Rome after the consistory, Bychok pointed to the importance of Marian devotion, drawing especially on the Immaculate Conception, whose feast was celebrated on Sunday for Italy.
“In 1917, the Blessed Virgin called on all of us to pray for the conversion of Russia. Her call to pray the rosary remains just as important in 2024,” he stated.
Describing the Rosary as “our spiritual sword, capable of overcoming all the forces of evil and their servants,” Bychok added that it is “a prayer through which we can overcome hatred and fulfill our vocation as messengers and bearers of God’s sacrificial and faithful love.”
Find below Cardinal Bychok’s full interview with LifeSiteNews
Michael Haynes: You’ve previously highlighted importance of peacemaking, and also evangelization. What do you think are the biggest challenges to evangelization, especially in much of Europe and the West, where we have really a crisis of secularization, of a loss of faith amongst people?
Cardinal Mykola Bychok: We need true witnesses of Christ. As you know, our Ukrainian Catholic Church was persecuted by the Communist regime for almost 70 years. For that reason, many of our bishops, priests, religious are called the confessors of the faith, which means they were very good examples for many generations of Ukrainians to follow this true example.
We should rediscover true connection with Christ, especially for Europe, in these capitalistic countries where secularization is, [and where] our people are overwhelmed by secularized work. We should rediscover the Gospel, we should rediscover close connection to Christ.
Of course, as you know, when we will have good connection with God, with Christ, we will have good connection with each other and these people.
Haynes: When you were named as cardinal you said you would draw your inspiration from your predecessor cardinals who’d been persecuted for their faith and imprisoned. {Cardinal Bychok had spoken of Cardinals Josyf Slipyj, Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, and Lubomyr Husar in particular}
Cardinal Bychok: Yes, as you know Cardinal Josyf Slipyj, he spent 18 years in Siberia in the Gulag and actually he was freed thanks to the Pope as well as the American President during the time of the Second Vatican Council. When he came to the Second Vatican Council, he was like a true witness of Christ, of the Faith, because he had spent too much time [in prison].
After that, as you know, he became leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church around the world. The majority of his life he spent here in Rome, in Via Bocea, Santa Sofia church. He visited many countries around the world – USA, Brazil, Argentina, Australia – so everywhere because as you know many of our people after the end of the World War II, they were looking for freedom and for a better place, not only for them but for their children.
For that reason we have “diaspora” around the world. That reason we have our structures everywhere in each continent – and I am the simple example of this because I’m a bishop for Ukrainians in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania – just for one reason because our people have arrived since the 1950s.
Haynes: Would you have any advice particularly for those for whom the idea of persecution of any kind for the faith is quite strange, but for many in the world it’s very real?
Cardinal Bychok: Yes, it’s real in these times, in this minute, in many countries where Christians are persecuted. They are true witnesses of Christ, they are not changing their belief: due to that reason we have many martyrs who were very zealous in their faith until martyrdom.
So that you see it’s difficult to understand for this, as I said, capitalistic countries, secularized world. But actually this example is of many, many people, not only in Ukraine, but around the world.
This interview has been lightly grammatically edited for clarity.