from
this RISU article: [
risu.ua]
[...]As reported previously, on October 6, 2024, Pope Francis announced that on December 8, he would hold a consistory on the occasion of the ordination of new cardinals. The list included Bishop Mykola Bychok, Bishop of Melbourne of the UGCC from Australia.
[...]
According to the press service of the Melbourne Diocese, Bishop Mykola Bychok will be the only cardinal for the UGCC and the Catholic Church in Australia. Since the Melbourne Diocese of the UGCC covers not only Australia but also New Zealand and Oceania, the Melbourne Bishop will be one of the cardinals of Oceania, along with the cardinals in Wellington, Tonga, Port Moresby and Dili.
[...]
In the history of the UGCC, there were 6 bishops who were proclaimed cardinals: Metropolitan Isidore of Kyiv, who took an active part in the Uniate Council of Florence in 1448-1449 and was proclaimed a cardinal; Metropolitan Mykhailo Levytskyi (1774-1858), Metropolitan Sylvester Sembratovych (1836-1898), Patriarch Josyf Slipyi (1892-1984), Patriarch Myroslav-Ivan Lubachivsky (1914-2000), and Patriarch Lubomyr Husar (1933-2017).
In the history of the Catholic Church, there have been 7 cardinals in Australia, the last of whom, Cardinal George Pell, passed away in January 2023. Thus, Bishop Mykola Bychok will become the seventh cardinal in the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the 8th cardinal in the history of the Catholic Church in Australia.
