Appointment of bishop of the eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago of the Ukrainians, United States of America

Appointment of coadjutor bishop of Telšiai, Lithuania

Appointment of bishop of the eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago of the Ukrainians, United States of America

The Holy Father has appointed as bishop of the eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago of the Ukrainians (United States of America) His Excellency Msgr. Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U., transferring him from the titular see of Germaniciana and the office of auxiliary of the archieparchy of Lviv of the Ukrainians.

Msgr. Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U.

Msgr. Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U. was born on 1 January 1968 in the village of Borshchivka, in the region of Rivne, Ukraine. He attended the major seminary of Drohobych and on 29 March 1992 he was ordained a priest.

In 1993 he was received in the Univ Holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite Rite and on 21 December 1995 he gave his first vows. He obtained a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.

He exercised his ministry in the parish of Bystrytsia (deaconry of Drohobych); in Belarus in Polock, and in the in parish of Vitebsk (1994-1996); and in Canada (1996-1999). He has served as Igumeno of the Lavra of Univ (2000 and re-elected in 2005); member of the commission of the Major Archbishop for Monasticism (2004); and administrator of the parish of St. Nicola Peremyshlany (2004). Since 2007 he was head of the secretariat of the Council of Monks of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church; president of the liturgical council and president of the major superiors of male religious institutes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

He was elected as auxiliary bishop of Lviv of the Ukrainians on 3 August 2010, and was consecrated on the following 5 September.

Appointment of coadjutor bishop of Telšiai, Lithuania

The Holy Father has appointed as coadjutor bishop of Telšiai, Lithuania, His Excellency Msgr. Kęstutis Kėvalas, currently auxiliary of Kaunas, Lithuania, and titular bishop of Abziri.

Msgr. Kęstutis Kėvalas

Msgr. Kęstutis Kėvalas was born in Kaunas on 17 February 1972. After secondary school, from 1990 to 1992 he studied at the technological university of Kaunas in the Faculty of Radioelectronics.

In 1993 he entered the seminary of Kaunas, where he studied philosophy and theology until 1997, when he continued his studies at the Saint Mary Seminary in Baltimore, United States of America. He then obtained a licentiate in theology and was ordained a priest on 29 June 2000 for the diocese of Kaunas.

He has served as director of the preparatory course of the archiepiscopal seminary and chaplain for youth pastoral ministry for the archdiocese. In 2002 he taught moral theology in the faculty of theology of the Vytautas-Magnus University in Kaunas. On 18 January he obtained a doctorate in theology from the same university.

From June 2005 to August 2006 he was spiritual director of the seminary of Kaunas. He then continued his studies in the United States for one year. Upon re-entry in the diocese in 2007 he exercised his pastoral ministry in the Cathedral of Kaunas and as confessor at the seminary. On 8 February 2010 he was appointed as director of programming for Radio Maria in Lithuania.

He was appointed as auxiliary bishop of Kaunas on 27 September 2012 and consecrated the following 24 November.