Category: Mission

Blessing of Cars 2026

Have you ever had your car blessed?

We will be having the Blessing of Cars in honor of St Elijah (Elias) on Sunday, July 19, following the Divine Liturgy.

St Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church, 569 George Street, New Haven, CT.

On July 20th, the Church honors the memory of St Elias (Elijah). He is the patron saint for cars and other vehicles. The glorious prophet Elijah is therefore known as the patron saint of vehicles, reminding us that we struggle to live a life of holiness, especially when we travel. St. Elijah shares this honor with St Christopher.

Following each of the Divine Liturgies on Sunday, July 19, Father Iura will bless our cars or any mode of transportation (cars, motorcycles, skate boards, baby carriages, skates, wagons, bicycles, tricycles and chariots, etc.).

Good things happening at the Seminary

In his February 16th letter, the rector of St. Basil Seminary, Fr Bohdan Tymchyshyn, noted some things that need to be known in a wider context.

By 2025’s end we had the priesthood ordination of Father Vasyl Vorokh. May Father Vasyl’s ministry be fruitful and blessed.

There are four seminarians at Saint Basil’s: two are major seminarians at the Dunwoodie Seminary (Yonkers, NY), one at Sacred Heart University (Fairfield) and one at Catholic University of America (Washington, DC).

Continue to pray for young men to be generous in serving our Eparchy of Stamford as priests.

Saint Basil, pray for us.

The first public address of Pope Leo

Pope Leo XIV, during his first Regina Coeli, on the Good Shepherd Sunday and the day of prayer for vocations, tells young people: “Do not be afraid” to accept the proposal from the Church!

And days after the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, Pope Leo XIV repeats, “No more war!” He called for an authentic, true and lasting peace in Ukraine, an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for humanitarian aid to be allowed in and all Israeli hostages freed.

Why be called Leo?

“I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labour…” (Address to Cardinals, May 10, 2025)

Eastern Christianity at the papal funeral

The Eastern Catholic patriarchs sing the Panikhida prayers at Pope Francis’s funeral. The heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches were also present at Pope Benedict’s, St John Paul II’s and St John XXIII’s funeral.

The presence of Eastern Christianity –Catholic and Orthodox– demonstrates eloquently the universality and diversity of the Universal Church, a church breathing with both lungs.

The youngest cardinals

The youngest cardinals at the Funeral of Pope Francis:

Left is Cardinal Américo Aguiar, Portugal, 51; Cardinal Mykola Bychok CSsR, Melbourne, 45; on the right is Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, IMC, Mongolia, 50.

Cardinal Mykola Bychok is the Eparch of the Ukrainian eparchy, Melbourne, Australia.

Photo courtesy of Cardinal Mykola Bychok.

Patriarch Sviatoslav in DC

The chapter of the UGCC with the Permanent Synod and the bishops of the Philadelphia Metropolis held a number of meetings at the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States and the Congress.

Photo by : o. Taras Zheplinsky