John Bukovsky ( Slovak: Ján Bukovský), SVD, named Ján Fukna at birth (18 January 1924 – 18 December 2010), was a Slovakia-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of R ...

Biography

Bukovsky was born in Cerová, Slovakia, on 18 January 1924, the fourth of six children. He entered the Society of the Divine Word seminary in

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of about 78,353, it is the fifth l ...

, Czechoslovakia, in 1939. The Society sent him to the United States for additional studies in 1947. Ordered to return to Czechoslovakia when the new Communist government revoked his passport, he instead with the help of Chicago Mayor

Richard J. Daley Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Chicago from 1955 and the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party Central Committee from 1953 until his death. He has been cal ...

reentered the U.S. from Canada as a legal immigrant. He was ordained in December 1950 in

Techny, Illinois Techny is a neighborhood of Northbrook, Illinois, United States. Once a separate community, it was annexed by Northbrook in 1989. The North American headquarters of the Divine Word Missionaries has been located in Techny since 1896. The area's n ...

, as a priest of the

Divine Word Missionaries The Society of the Divine Word ( la, Societas Verbi Divini), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Ri ...

and became a U.S. citizen a few years later. In 1952 he received a degree in sacred theology from Catholic University. He then pursued an academic career, teaching at St. Mary's Seminary in Techny for 14 years and studying at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and earning a degree from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 1966. In the 1970s, while Bukovsky served a six-year term in the office of the General Council of the Society of the Divine Word, an elected position, Cardinal

Agostino Casaroli Agostino Casaroli (24 November 1914 – 9 June 1998) was an Italian Catholic priest and diplomat for the Holy See, who became Cardinal Secretary of State. He was the most important figure behind the Vatican's efforts to deal with the persecutio ...

recruited him to join the Secretariat of State. While working there Bukovsky frequently lunched with the pope. He was also named to the Curia's Council for Public Affairs and made several trips to explore relations between the Holy See and the countries of Eastern Europe. For 17 years he headed the Secretariat's Eastern Europe desk. On 18 August 1990,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

named him titular archbishop of Tabalta and

Apostolic Nuncio An apostolic nuncio ( la, nuntius apostolicus; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. He was the first Nuncio to Romania of the post-Communist era. On 20 December 1994, he was appointed the first papal representative to the Russian Federation. Bukovsky had some significant successes there, regaining partial control of the former seminary in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. Bukovsky retired upon the appointment of his successor,

Giorgio Zur Giorgio Zur (15 February 1930 – 8 January 2019) was a Catholic archbishop and diplomat of the Holy See. Biography The son of a master tailor, Giorgio Zur studied in Rome at the Gregorian University, where he obtained a licentiate in philos ...

on 29 January 2000. Pope John Paul named him a member of the

Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, previously named the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU), is a dicastery whose origins are associated with the Second Vatican Council which met intermittently from 1962 to 1965. Po ...

and a consultor to the Secretariat of State on 6 June 2002. John_Bukovsky

He died in Techny on 18 December 2010.

Writings

* ''Spomienky spoločníka. Nitra : Spoločnosť krásneho slova'', 2006. . S. 146. * ''Chiesa del martirio, chiesa della diplomazia. : Memorie tra Cecoslovacchia e Vaticano''. Bologna: EDB, 2009. . S. 104.

References

External links

Catholic Hierarchy: Archbishop John Bukovsky, S.V.D.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bukovsky, John 20th-century American Roman Catholic titular archbishops 1924 births 2010 deaths Divine Word Missionaries Order Apostolic Nuncios to Romania Apostolic Nuncios to Russia Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States People from Senica District