Conclave. Mykola Byczok – who is the youngest cardinal for the conclave

In the pictures taken in the Vatican just before the start of the conclave, it can be seen that not all cardinals had characteristic red bears. One of those who drew the media attention with another headgear is Cardinal Mykola Byczok. What do we know about the youngest participant in the conclave?

In the Vatican there is a conclave, which will choose 267. The head of the Catholic Church. A record number of 133 electors, including four cardinals from Poland – is Stanisław Ryłko, Kazimierz Nycz, Konrad Krajewski and Grzegorz Ryś in the choice of a new pope. The oldest elector is 79-year-old Spaniard Carlos Osoro Sierra, who is 80 years old in a week, while the youngest 45-year-old Greek Catholic cardinal from Ukraine Mykola Byczok, bishop of the Eparchy of St. Piotr and Paweł in Melbourne in Australia. It belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church.

See also: The conclave is ongoing. Black smoke over the Vatican

Mykola Byczok. The youngest cardinal for the conclave

Mykola Byczok was born in 1980 in Tarnopol in the western part of Ukraine. He joined the monastery at the age of 17, and made his first weddings in 1998. According to ABC News, in 2001 he moved to Poland, where he wrote a master's thesis on work with youth groups. Three years later he was ordained, and in 2005 he began working as a missionary in Russia. In the years 2007-2015 he worked in Ukraine, then in USA. He moved to Australia in 2020.

Pope Francis He appointed Byczok a cardinal in December 2024. ABC News wrote that the cardinal nomination for him was “unexpected”. “Choosing a young and relatively unknown bishop, Pope Francis omitted the influential leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia,” wrote the Australian portal. Because purple belongs to the Catholic church of the Eastern rite, its liturgical robes differed from the traditional costumes of other cardinals – noted the synod of bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church after last year's ceremony in the Vatican.

Cardinal from Ukraine like John Paul II?

After the death of Franciszek, the Reuters agency indicated that although the purple from Ukraine is “less known” to the public, “can be taken into account” during the conclave. “His choice would be as surprising (and perhaps as symbolic) as the election of John Paul II in 1978. The Ukrainian -Australian Pope, elected during the ongoing war in Ukraine, would send a strong signal about the care of the Church about suffering nations and world peace” – emphasized the Reuter.