Watervliet's cardinal (sort of)

Or is it four?

It has been widely reported that three Americans will become cardinals: Archbishops Edward Egan of New York and Theodore McCarrick of Washington, and theologian Rev. Avery Dulles. But there is actually a fourth American among the nearly four dozen cardinal-designates: Archbishop Lubomyr Husar, the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen with strong ties to our area. As reported on page 20, Catholics in Watervliet have encountered him in many ways.

There is no doubt that Cardinal-designate Husar's heart is in Ukraine, where he served the Church in secret amid oppression and now serves it openly as that nation struggles to renew itself after the fall of communism. But his links to the U.S. should not be forgotten; we know they won't be by the Catholics, both Eastern- and Latin-rite, who have met and been impressed by the new cardinal.

In 1875, when Pope Pius IX named the first cardinal from the United States, he turned to someone with links to the Albany Diocese: John McCloskey, then archbishop of New York but previously the first bishop of Albany. Now, 126 years later, a pope has touched our area with his choice of a cardinal, this time from an Eastern rite of the Church.

We wish Cardinal-designate Husar well and congratulate the Ukrainian Catholics of our area for the honor John Paul has bestowed on them.
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