Ivan Ljavinec

Ivan Ljavinec ( born April 18, 1923 in Volovec, Carpathian Ukraine; † 9 December 2012) was a Greek Catholic priest and Apostolic Exarch of Czech Republic.

Life

Ivan Ljavinec studied after his Schlulabschluss in Mukachevo theology in Uzhhorod and Vienna. He received on 28 July 1946 Pavol Peter Gojdič, Archbishop of Prešov, the ordination. After Russian occupation of his homeland, the Carpathian Ukraine, he settled first in Prešov Slovak and became secretary of Pavol Gojdič. In addition, he was editor of the magazine Blahovistnik and Zorja. In 1949 he became spiritual director of the seminary in Prešov.

After the banning of the Eastern Catholic Churches after the Second World War by the communist regime and the arrest of Bishop Pavol Gojdič and Auxiliary Bishop Hopko Vasiľ in 1950 Ivan Ljavinec was as Vicar General highest representative of his church. 1955 also Ljavinec was imprisoned and sentenced a year later to four years in a labor camp. After his release, he had residence and banned from working in the districts of Košice and Prešov. In Prague, he worked as a craftsman. Along with Frantisek Tomasek, archbishop of Prague, he fought with success for the reinstatement of the Eastern Churches according to the Byzantine Rite. In 1969 he became pastor of St. Clement's Church in Prague. He was appointed administrator of the Eastern Churches according to the Byzantine rite in the Czech Republic in 1993.

Pope John Paul II appointed him on 18 January 1996 titular bishop of Acalissus and for the first Apostolic Exarch of the Eastern Churches according to the Byzantine Rite of the Czech Republic and for the first Apostolic Exarch of the Greek Catholic Church in the Czech Republic. The Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches Miroslav Stefan Marusyn consecrated him on 30 March 1996 in the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome as bishop; Co-consecrators were Giovanni Coppa, Apostolic Nuncio to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Bilyk OSBM Irynej, Auxiliary Bishop of Ivano- Frankivsk.

On 23 April 2003 Pope John Paul II accepted his resignation age-related.