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Cardinal Mykola Bychok: “Only with God Does a Person Find True Freedom”
June 30, 2026
On Sunday, 28 June, Bishop Mykola Cardinal Bychok presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Pro-Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Rome. Concelebrating with His Eminence were Fr Dmytro Kudin, Vice-Rector of the Cathedral, Fr Athanasius McVay, and Fr Ivan Vysochansky.
In his homily, the Bishop reflected on the spiritual significance of the Word of God, comparing it with the dimensions of human legislation. Cardinal Mykola noted that Sacred Scripture offers a person far more than rights and obligations; it provides clear guidance for life in the person of Jesus Christ.
Reflecting on the Sunday Gospel account of the healing of the demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes, the preacher drew attention to the reaction of the local inhabitants, who, because of the loss of their herd of swine, asked the Lord to leave their region. Drawing a parallel with the present day, Cardinal Mykola warned that people often act in the same way when they cling more firmly to their own habits and material comfort than to God’s truth. “There is nothing worse than when a person casts God out of his or her life. It is something truly terrible. Sometimes a person may do this unconsciously, without realising the consequences of rejecting the Creator of heaven and earth,” Cardinal Mykola emphasised.
His Eminence also devoted particular attention to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the historic visit of Saint Pope John Paul II to Ukraine and the proclamation of the twenty-eight Blessed Martyrs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. He expressed his spiritual unity with His Beatitude Sviatoslav and the Synod of Bishops, who at that very time were praying in Lviv in commemoration of these significant events. Bishop Mykola described the example of the martyrs, who suffered under the Soviet regime, as an invaluable guide for contemporary Ukraine as it endures the severe trials of war. “Just as Christ freed the demoniacs from the power of darkness and demons, so the martyrs allowed Christ to free them from fear of suffering and death. They became truly free people because they belonged to God alone,” the preacher said.
At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Fr Dmytro expressed his gratitude to Bishop Mykola for the shared Eucharistic prayer and for his valuable spiritual reflections. Cardinal Mykola then imparted his episcopal blessing upon the catechists of the Apostolic Exarchate in Italy, led by Sr Luisa Tsiupa, and upon all those present.
Following the conclusion of the service and the singing of the spiritual hymn Bozhe Velykyi, Yedynyi (“O Great and Almighty God”), the clergy and faithful proceeded to the monument of Taras Shevchenko in the courtyard of the cathedral, where they together sang the National Anthem of Ukraine on the occasion of Constitution Day of Ukraine.
