John Bukovsky

Who was John Bukovsky?

Archbishop John Bukovsky SVD was a naturalized United States citizen, born in Cerova-Lieskové, Slovakia, and a Vatican diplomat; he was a member of the Society of the Divine Word since 1950. He was ordained as a priest on 3 December 1950 in Techny, Illinois. Priest of Divine Word Missionaries. He was Ordained Titular Archbishop of Tabalta in August 1990. He was the Apostolic Nuncio in Romania from 1990 to 1994. In 1994, he became the first Apostolic Delegate to the Russian Federation. Archbishop Bukovsky could said to have achieved some significant successes in Russia. For example, through adroit negotiations with the mayor of St. Petersburg, he succeeded in regaining partial control of the former seminary in St. Petersburg. Archbishop Bukovsky retired in January 2000, and died in Techny on Saturday, December 18, 2010 at the age of 86. According to a December 21, 2010 online news brief by the Catholic News Service homepage site, "he spoke nine languages fluently, including Polish, German, Russian, English, French, and his native Slovak.