Pope appoints a new administrator of Mukachevo Diocese of the RCC
Holy Father appointed assistant bishop of the Diocese of Mukachevo Mykola Luchko O.P. Apostolic administrator of the vacant seat ad nutum Sanctae Sedis (till revocation by the Apostolic See).
The Diocese of Mukachevo is part of the Metropolia of Lviv of the RCC in Ukraine; it covers parishes and structures in the Transcarpathian region. 1993 St. John Paul II founded the Apostolic administration of Transcarpathia, where he appointed Archbishop Antonio Franco, then Apostolic Nuncio, as apostolic administrator.
He was succeeded in 1997 by Bishop Antal Mainek, who was appointed assistant bishop at the end of 1995. When on 27 March 2002 St John Paul II created the Diocese of Mukachevo on 27 March 2002, Bishop Antal became its first ordinary. In November, he turned 70 years old. The appointment of an assistant bishop was announced on November 11, 2019, in the Vatican.
Bishop Mykola Luchok was born on March 26, 1974 in Mukachevo. In 1994, he joined the Order of the Brothers Preachers, where he took lifelong vows in 2000. He received his theological education at the Dominican philosophical and Theological College in Krakow, Poland. After receiving Presbyterian ordinations on June 24, 2003, father Nicholas took pastoral care in Yalta, St. Petersburg, Chortkov, Lviv and Khmelnytskyi.
In July 2018, he became the rector of the community in Lviv. On November 11, 2019, Pope Francis appointed Fr. Mykola Petr Luchko an assistant bishop of the Diocese of Mukachevo of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, granting him the titular seat of Girou-Marcelli. The episcopal ordination was performed on December 10, 2019, in Mukachevo.
He speaks Ukrainian, Hungarian, Slovak, Russian, Polish and English.
