Cardinal-designate Bishop Mykola Bychok has last week given a humble and uplifting address to the November plenary meeting of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in Sydney.
Bishop Mykola, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sts Peter and Paul, will be made a Cardinal at the Consistory to be held in Rome on December 7.
Aged 44, he will be the youngest of the new cardinals.
Addressing the first plenary meeting to be held since Pope Francis’ announcement a month ago, Bishop Mykola said he was “overwhelmed by the appointment” which had come as a shock.
“I am a young bishop in a very small and under resourced Eparchy … the territory of my Eparchy covers a continent and half of Pacific Ocean,” he told his fellow bishops.
“I seem to spend much of my time at airports and on planes.”
Bishop Mykola thanked the bishops for their messages of support and prayers.
“Since my arrival in Australia in 2021, I have found your personal support and friendship to be one of the greatest gifts that I have received in my life. My words cannot fully express how much I come to rely on your wisdom, friendship and love.
“I do not know what my future holds. However, I do know that I am not ‘his Eminence’ but remain your brother Mykola a ‘servant’ of Christ and his flock that has been entrusted to my care.”
On his new role, Bishop Mykola said he desired to use the voice of a cardinal wisely “to spread the Gospel and the love of God for all people”.
“Australia is now my home which I love. I am a cardinal from Australia, and I will be a cardinal for Australia,” he said.
“But I cannot do this on my own. I need your help, your wisdom and above all your prayers. I look forward to continuing my mission as the Eparch of Melbourne and as a member of this conference.”
He urged the Church to continue to play a role in achieving a “just peace” for Ukraine and assist its people, who continued to “suffer at the hands of the Russian aggressor”.