
God works in mysterious ways, but the Holy Father is even more mysterious, Cardinal-Elect Mykola Bychok CSsR, Eparch of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Australia and Oceania, told The Catholic Weekly the day of his appointment.
The cardinal-elect learned of his appointment like many other Catholics—from reading the news online on 7 October, and said he will be “in shock for days, weeks and maybe months.”
“For me, it’s a great mystery. God works in mysterious ways, and the pope works in mysterious ways, under God! To fulfil this will of God will be a huge challenge for me, and a really difficult cross,” he said.
Cardinal-Elect Bychok will be the youngest cardinal in the Catholic Church, and the eighth cardinal in both the history of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and of Australia.
He was appointed to the Eparchy of Sts Peter and Paul Melbourne in 2020, aged only 41, but was prevented from taking his episcopal seat for almost a year by COVID-19. His first experience of Australia was a month of hotel quarantine during the pandemic.
Ordained to the priesthood in only 2005, his early ministry was typified by the missionary activity beloved by the Holy Father, which may offer a clue as to why he was appointed.
His first ministry was to the coal-mining city of Prokopyevsk in Siberia, where he was the pastor of Ukrainian Greek-Catholics descended from those exiled or forcibly resettled by the Soviets in the 1950s and 60s.
He celebrated the Divine Liturgy in apartments or private homes, and would travel through thick snow hundreds of kilometres to see a handful of parishioners—which had his fellow Redemptorists joking that the 25-year-old priest must have received the assignment as a penance.
When he arrived in Australia in 2021 he brought that same dynamism with him, driving across the continent to visit his people in Perth and Darwin, on Australia’s western and northern peripheries.

The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher OP, currently in Rome for the Synod on Synodality, congratulated Cardinal-Elect Bychok and asked Australian Catholics to pray for him.
“It is my sincere wish that this appointment brings both great joy and hope for the people of Ukraine, and Ukrainians in Australia who pray for peace and the end to senseless violence in their homeland,” Archbishop Fisher said.
He was also congratulated by the Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, his brother bishops in the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Australia’s papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Balvo, and his mother, whom he spoke to by phone on Monday.
Much like the cardinal-elect, Mrs Bychok had only just come to terms with her son’s appointment as a bishop on the other side of the globe—she was also in shock.
“The same, but maybe double!” he said. “To be a cardinal is a huge responsibility, not only for the church in Australia, in Ukraine, but worldwide.”
By coincidence, the cardinal-elect was in Sydney for a ceremony honouring Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is visiting Australia, and prayed at the tomb of Cardinal George Pell soon after receiving news of his appointment.

Cardinal-Elect Bychok paid tribute to his predecessor, who passed away early in 2023, for his witness to the faith and perseverance during his time in jail for abuse offences, for which he was ultimately exonerated.
“Cardinal Pell, besides all his trials, was faithful to God. He proclaimed the Word of God until the end—he was a true apostle of Christian values. That’s what I would like to carry into my ministry as cardinal,” Cardinal-Elect Bychok said.
In a statement shortly after his appointment, he also honoured his predecessor cardinals of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
“I will endeavour to follow the worthy example of my predecessor cardinals,” the cardinal-elect said, singling out 20th-century Cardinals Myroslav Lubachivsky, Lubomyr Husar, and Josyf Slipyj.
Cardinal Slipyj, one of the most esteemed churchmen of the 20th century, spent nearly two decades in the Soviet Gulag and was the inspiration for Australian author Morris West’s bestselling novel, The Shoes of the Fisherman.
“[A]fter his release after 18 years in a Soviet gulag and moving to Rome, [he] became the voice of our church in the free world and, using various forums, emphasised the persecution of the Churches in the USSR and called for more radical actions to protect the rights of believers,” Cardinal-Elect Bychok said of Cardinal Slipyj.
The cardinal-elect, who is now Australia’s sole cardinal, said it was a “special sign” for the small but proud Ukrainian church in Australia, and would be a “breath of fresh air” for a country whose migrant population is among its most faithful.
“It’s a special sign, especially for our small Eparchy. We are huge by territory, but small by numbers, which is good for us—huge support, a huge privilege,” he said.
“Here, for our Eparchy, for all Oceania, as well as Ukraine and the Ukrainian church. Ukraine is experiencing immense upheaval, because of the war of the last two and a half years.
“How will the war end? Only God knows—people begin wars, but God ends them.
“For Australia, it’s a breath of fresh air! Yes, I’m young. I never thought about this!
“In that sense it’s a huge support and will strengthen our church in Australia, and the whole Australian nation, which should re-discover Christian values, I think so.
“This wave of secularisation, it’s really not good for Australia. We should re-establish, re-discover Christian values, for the Australian people.
“In Australia we have multiculturalism. Many migrants, thanks to God, they live in unity, especially recently-arrived migrants.
“Not only from Ukraine, but from Vietnam, India, the Philippines. They are really faithful. They go to church. I wish this spirit and dedication would extend to all Australian people.”
Cardinal-Elect Bychok joined other clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches of the Maronite, Melkite and Chaldean Eparchies, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel, and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Makarios Griniezakis, at St Mary’s Cathedral on 7 October to honour Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew I.
The Ecumenical Patriarch received an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame Australia, for his commitment to dialogue and environmental theology.
“It’s very important for us, especially the Eastern Bishops, to be in touch with His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholemew,” Cardinal-Elect Bychok said.
“He is a great leader, especially in the ecumenical field. He has good connections with the pope, and previous popes, for that reason it’s a good way to pursue unity in the church. I congratulate the Ecumenical Patriarch for his work.”
“He knows, from the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, what is happening in Ukraine. He is very good, and supportive, for Ukraine—for a just peace, not only peace, but a just peace.”