He is the youngest cardinal in the conclave and was one of the last to take the oath, recognizable by the hood that covered him up to his shoulders, in contrast to the biretta of the other 132 cardinals. At 45, Mykola Bychok, a follower of the Greek-Catholic tradition, born in Ukraine and bishop in the Australian city of Melbourne, has made headlines in Rome as the "millennial cardinal": the most rejuvenating and exotic note in a gathering mostly composed of septuagenarians.
Pope Francis made him a cardinal at the end of last year, personally distinguishing him as a "fearless witness of Christ and the Gospel in a world marked by inequality and conflicts."
Even then, Cardinal Bychok attracted media attention for his peculiar story. Born in 1980 in the Ukrainian town of Ternopil, a member of the Redemptorist order since he was 17. Ordained as a priest in Lviv and a missionary for several months in the Church of the Mother of Perpetual Help in Prokopyevsk (Russia). Vicar of the Ukrainian parish of St. John the Baptist in Newark, New Jersey, and bishop of the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne at the age of 40.
His greatest ambition, he says, was "to be a priest and that's it." Everything else has come falling from the sky. "May the Holy Spirit enlighten our hearts and minds so that we can choose a worthy candidate as the 267th bishop of Rome," he wrote on his Facebook page before the conclave. He is undoubtedly one of the most active cardinals on social media.
He has unequivocally condemned Russia's war against Ukraine as "genocide," and he earnestly asked Pope Francis to pray for a peaceful solution. "I am a bishop in Australia and a cardinal of the universal Church, but Ukraine is in my heart," Bychok acknowledges. "The Church must be proactive in its role as a mediator of peace, not only in Ukraine but also in the Middle East and other parts of the world afflicted by war and conflict."
He describes himself as a "flexible and accessible" cardinal, committed to social causes and not very fond of pomp and grandeur, although he follows Slavic traditions, hails from an Orthodox country, and carries the Catholic faith in a peripheral country and in a Protestant environment.