The Ukrainian cardinal Mykola bychok He is the youngest member of the Cardenalicio College and will be the youngest voter of the conclave who will choose a new Pope over the coming weeks.
Bychok is Eparquial Bishop of the Saints Pedro and Pablo de Melbourne of the Ukrainians (Australia) and was born on February 13, 1980 in Ternopil, Ukraine. Pope Francis created him and Cardinal proclaimed at the Consistory of December 7, 2024of the title of the Roman Church of Santa Sofía in Via Boccea.
Bychok, therefore, will become the only millennial cardinal who will participate in the election of the new Holy Father. The Ukrainian, only 45, contrasts with many of his classmates, being the vast majority of an advanced age.
On the opposite side is the Spanish cardinal Carlos Osorio Sierra, 79. The Archbishop Emeritus of Madrid will be the oldest man to participate in the conclave, since he has not yet fulfilled the 80s, a figure that prevents being part of the election of the new Pontiff.
Experience for more than 25 years
According to the biography disseminated by the Vatican, Cardinal Bychok entered the redemptive order in July 1997when he had not yet fulfilled age, and formed in Ukraine and Poland, obtaining a degree in pastoral theology. It was on August 17, 2003 when he cast his perpetual votes and on May 3, 2005 was ordered priest In lviv.
Throughout the following years he occupied different ecclesiastical positions. He was a missionary in the church of the mother of perpetual relief in prokopyevsk in Russia; Superior of the monastery of San José and pastor of the mother of the perpetual relief in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine; Economomo of the redemptive province of Lviv and since 2015 Vicar of the Parish of San Juan Bautista in Newark, New Jersey, Archeparchy of Philadelphia of the Ukraine.
On January 15, 2020 he was appointed Bishop of the Eparquía de los Santos Pedro and Pablo de Melbourne of the Ukrainians. Months later, on June 7, 2020 he was consecrated Bishop for Archbishop Major Svatoslav Shevchuk in the San Jorge Cathedral, Lvvv.
Finally, in the middle of 2021party of the saints Pedro and Pablo in the Julian calendar, was enthroned as Third Bishop of Melbourne Eparquía by Se Peter A. Comunnsoli, Metropolitan Archbishop of Melbourne, in the cathedral of the saints Pedro and Pablo, in Melbourne.
John Atcherley, who goes from further
Another curious data in the next conclave is the cardinal who travels from further. This is John Atcherley Dew, Archbishop Emeritus of Wellington, who travels from the Diocese of New Zealand.
Atcherley will have to take a couple of airplanes, which will require almost 40 hours of flight, to get to El Vaticano. A strenuous trip to be able to attend the conclave in which the new Holy Father will be chosen.
John Atcherley Dew was appointed Cardinal by Pope Francis more than a decade ago, in February 2015.
