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The visit of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, to Ukraine will start with a press-conference which will take place on July 10, at 17.30 at the Metropolitan Chambers on Saint George’s Hill in Lviv (accreditation will be on site upon presentation of press credentials). This will be preceded at 15.40 by a meeting of the honored guest with representatives of Church and state authorities at the Lviv airport and a visit to the Cathedral of Saint George and the crypt.

The next day until lunch Cardinal Sandri is planned to visit the Lviv seminary, where he will meet with seminarians of the five seminaries of the UGCC in Ukraine. After lunch the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches will visit the Ukrainian Catholic University. On Saturday morning at the Lavra [Major Monastery] of the Holy Dormition in Univ, Cardinal Sandri will meet with 200 members of monastic orders and communities of the UGCC. The same day, at 18.00, the guest from the Vatican and persons accompanying him will arrive at Zarvanytsya (Ternopil Region) to participate in the all-Ukrainian pilgrimage to the miraculous site of the appearance of the Most Holy Mother of God. There Cardinal Sandri will meet with youth.

The center of the visit of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches will be a solemn Divine Liturgy on Sunday July 13 in Zarvanytsya. It will be concelebrated with bishops of the UGCC, the Apostolic Nuncio in Ukraine, numerous priests, and His Beatitude Lubomyr, the Head of the UGCC. A sermon will be given by the Head of the UGCC, and Cardinal Sandri will talk at the end of the Liturgy. Another meeting of the honored guest will take place after the Divine Liturgy, this time with priests. By the way, each such meeting has a similar scenario: presentation of the participants and the places of conducting the meeting, a speech of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, and exchange of opinions. That evening, the guest will fly to Kyiv, where on Monday are planned meetings with the state authorities, and, after lunch, with the intelligentsia. On Tuesday July 15, the last date of his visit, Cardinal Sandri will visit the building of the Patriarchal Center of the UGCC in the capital of Ukraine and, after a farewell lunch in the suburban residence of the Head of the UGCC, he will fly to Rome.

"Cardinal Sandri visited Ukraine for the first time in 2001 when he accompanied Pope John Paul II during his visit to our country. He knows Ukrainians in Argentina (Cardinal Sandri was born in Argentina), but he does not know Ukraine well. Therefore, right when he became the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, we invited him to the all-Ukrainian pilgrimage to Zarvanytsya. We understood consequently that on this occasion it is worth organizing his visits to other places, so that he could meet with various groups of the Church’s communities." So His Beatitude Lubomyr spoke about the visit of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Information Department of the UGCC

Biographical Information

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on November 18, 1943, to a family of Italian immigrants.

After completing philosophical and theological education, he received a licentiate in theology from the Catholic University of Argentina.

He was ordained a priest on December 2, 1967.

Being for some time the personal secretary of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, in 1970 he was sent to study canon law in Rome, at the Pontifical University Gregorianum, from which he graduated with a doctorate in canon law.

In 1971 he was called to the Papal Ecclesiastical Academy to take courses intended for diplomats of the Holy See. In 1974 he was appointed attache of the Apostolic Nunciature in Madagascar and Mauritania. In 1977 he was transferred to the Vatican Secretariat of State, remaining there 12 years as a secretary of the substitute in general matters of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

In 1989 he was sent as the Adviser of the Apostolic Nuncio in the United States of America. On August 26, 1991, he was appointed the Regent of the Prefecture of the Apostolic Palace.

In 1997 he was appointed the Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela, receiving episcopal ordination on October 11, 1997. In March 2000, the Holy Father appointed him the Apostolic Nuncio in Mexico, where he stayed until September 15, 2000, when Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the Anniversary of Papal Representatives appointed him as the substitute in general matters of the Vatican Secretariat of State. During his service in this position he took part in the preparation of apostolic trips to various countries of the world. Particularly awaited and important for the Eastern Catholic Churches were trips to Greece, Syria, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia and Croatia, with John Paul II, and to Turkey with Benedict XVI.

On June 9, 2007, His Holiness Benedict XVI appointed him Prefect of Congregation for the Oriental Churches. At the Consistory on November 24, 2007, the Holy Father elevated him to the rank of Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.