Pope Francis has sent a telegram his condolences on the death of His Beatitude, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Major Archbishop emeritus of Kyiv-Halyč. The telegram is addressed to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Cardinal Husar’s successor as head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
"When I heard the news of the passing of the Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Major Archbishop-Emeritus of Kyiv and Halych, I prayed fervently to God to grant eternal repose to this zelous Pastor. I unite myself spiritually with the faithful of the eparchial community which he served and carefully strove toward the revival of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. I remember his firm loyalty to Christ, despite privations and persecutions against the Church. I also remember his fruitful apostolic activity to organize the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic faithful, descendants of those families forcibly displaced from Western Ukraine and all the efforts to find ever new ways of dialogue and cooperation with the Orthodox Churches. In expressing my condolences to the relatives of the late Cardinal, and to the clergy and to all those who received his episcopal service, from my heart I impart the conforting Apostolic Blessing, as a sign of faith and Christian hope in the Risen Lord", wrote the Pope.