We lived in relationship. We lived humbly in challenging social and economic conditions. There is an ongoing war in Ukraine, which has continued for more than five years. Most of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic faithful in the Paris Eparchy are undocumented immigrants or refugees. Virtually all of us, me included, were struggling to learn one or more of the six official languages of these three kingdoms and two republics. France, the Benelux, and Switzerland are among the most secularized countries in the world. As we prayed together and worked to set and maintain the course on rough and unpredictable seas, we were together in sacrifice and service. Our eparchy became a modest but authentic and faith-filled corner of the Kingdom of God, which is already here and still yet to come.

I will never forget these experiences. I will miss the energy and life of the Paris Eparchy, the enthusiasm of our small team, and the love of the people. The clergy and laity are fantastic and were my teachers and guides in many issues. I am most grateful to the bishops’ conferences of Western Europe, to the various charities and foundations that supported our mission, and to the countless individuals who helped us grow. The sense of gratitude for the last six and one-half years is actually quite overwhelming.

At the same time, the nomination is a homecoming. My Ukrainian-American family and the Church in the United States gave me life in body and spirit. I was born in Syracuse, New York. There, at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church on Tompkins Street, I was washed in the waters of Baptism. There God called me to the priesthood. Decades earlier, America had warmly and generously welcomed my penniless parents who were World War II refugees fleeing communist persecution in Ukraine. America gave them a new start, guaranteeing them freedom and dignity. This is the story of many in the Archeparchy. It is there that my brother and the rest of my family live and where the mortal remains of my parents rest. To me, America granted a secure childhood, years of good Catholic schooling, and university studies. The United States of America is a remarkable, although not flawless, socio-political model, unimaginable without Biblical principles and insights. It is a country that, in many ways, still declares, “In God we trust.”

Having lived 30 years of my adult life in Europe, I look forward to the adventure of getting to know the United States and its Church in a new way. I have great respect for the Church’s service to successive generations of immigrants and the poor. The development of Catholic intellectual life in the US has been an important contribution to the Universal Church. I trust that at this time of great challenge, which is also a time of purification, the Church in America is called to a new spiritual and moral witness through conversion and service, boldly announcing the Good News. In this the Ukrainian Catholic Church is has its specific call, one that it has been developing for almost a century and half and one that should be critically and creatively revisited for the people of today and tomorrow. During times of profound division, aggression, fear, and even scandal, which are also times of great human opportunity and abiding Christian hope, the Lord will bestow His grace on the Church and through the Church in America.

At your enthronement at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on December 2, 2012, you called the clergy and faithful of the Paris Eparchy to advance together “from glory to glory.” What was that pilgrimage about? What has happened during those six years?