23-04-2025
Australia-based cardinal Mykola Bychok will join the conclave to elect a new pope
As the cardinals of the Catholic church gather in Rome to elect a new Holy Father following the death of Pope Francis, one interesting Australian connection will be among them.
Ukrainian-born Bishop Mykola Bychok, who at age 45 is the youngest member of the Sacred College of Cardinals, works in Melbourne and is the first Australia-based cardinal since George Pell. He will be eligible to apply for Australian citizenship this year.
"As Christians we celebrate death believing in the mercy and love of God, especially in this time of Holy Pascha [Easter] when celebrating Christ's conquering 'Death by Death' by His resurrection," he wrote, after the news broke of the Pope's death.
Bychok, was
"When I was raised to the College of Cardinals, I asked the Holy Father to pray for Ukraine, to help free stolen Ukrainian children and to pray for me in my new mission as an Australian-Ukrainian cardinal," he wrote on Monday.
"I now pray, that Pope Francis may intercede before Christ for the people of Australia and Ukraine and that God may grant me the grace to live my mission as a cardinal of the Catholic Church."
There are now 252 cardinals of the Catholic church. Only 139, made up of those under 80 years old, including Bychok, will be eligible to vote in the conclave to elect a new Pope.
Bychok had been travelling to Israel at the time of the Pope's death but said he would travel to Rome as soon as possible for the funeral and conclave
He told
Quick rise through the church
Bychok has been based in Melbourne since January 2020 and was consecrated as a bishop a few months later. He is Bishop of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church — one of the largest
Bychok's rise through the Catholic church's ancient hierarchies has been swift.
He was born in Ukraine's western city of Ternopil, not far from Lviv which became the country's de facto capital following Russia's 2021 invasion but has since also been
Bychok was a religious child. As a 15-year-old alter boy he decided to
Photo shows
A cardinal wearing cardinal robes standing next to a statue inside an old building in the Vatican.
The Ukrainian-born missionary says he aims to be a cardinal who is "flexible, holy, accessible and without eminence".
Charnetsky was a member of the Redemptorist order, founded in 1732 to work among neglected country people around Naples in Italy. The order continues to focus on working with the poor and isolated.
Membership of the order is reflected in the identifier CSsR, which stand for Congregation Sanctissimi Redemptoris, or Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
Bychok is also a Redemptorist, and uses the CSsR after his name. In 2001 he moved to Poland where he wrote his masters' thesis on working with youth groups.
He was ordained in July 2004 as a deacon, the first of the church's six ranks that include priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal and pope.
In 2005 Bychok became a priest and moved to Russia where he worked in the Siberian city of Prokopyevsk.
After returning to Ukraine in 2007 Bychok spent the next eight years working primarily in the towns and cities around Lviv. In 2015 he moved to New Jersey in the US where he was vicar of the Ukrainian Catholic parish of Saint John the Baptist in Newark.
He was appointed to Melbourne in 2020.
Unusual choice for cardinal
The announcement Bychok had been chosen as a cardinal was unexpected.
In selecting a young and relatively unknown bishop, Pope Francis bypassed high-profile Catholic leaders in Australia including Anthony Fisher, the Archbishop of Sydney, and Peter Comensoli, Archbishop of Melbourne.
Most members of the College of Cardinals are in their 70s. The oldest nominated as a Cardinal in the group of 21 that included Bychok, was aged 99. Their role is to provide advice to the Pope on how to run the church.
Bychok's selection has been viewed by many as an attempt by Pope Francis to make the Catholic church's leadership more geographically diverse by avoiding bureaucrats and church officials.
Bychok wore a traditional black headdress at the ceremony to appoint him, reflecting the culture of the
Mykola Bychok was elevated to cardinal at a ceremony at the Vatican.
(
ABC News: Adrian Wilson
)
The Catholic church is divided into six rites that reflect the liturgical tradition of the Eastern Church, and include the Latin Rite which governs the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome.
Others include the Alexandrian Rite, that overseas the Coptic Catholic Church and others, as well as the West Syrian or Antiochene Rite that includes the Maronite Catholic Church.
The appointment of Bychok as Cardinal is also seen as an attempt to break from the past — not only with a focus on youth and diversity but to create distance between Australia and Cardinal George Pell who was acquitted of child sexual abuse charges before his death in 2023, but left a
