08.09.12, Lviv region
At the beginning of September Caritas of the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was visited by the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Thomas Edward Gullickson. This visit to Caritas is an especially important historic event because this is the highest ranking representative of the Pope to visit Drohobych. The honourable visitor accompanied Bishop Yaroslav (Pryriz) to Caritas and learned about the branch’s activities.
After receiving greetings from Caritas clients and volunteers, the Archbishop met with staff and administrators. The Most Holy Archbishop watched a film about the Nazareth rehabilitation centre for individuals with dependency issues.
At the end of the meeting Archbishop Thomas acknowledged Caritas’s extremely important work of serving disadvantaged neighbours. “Everything you’re doing here is really impressive, sincere and professional,” said the Nuncio. “Thank you for inviting me and for your warm welcome.
You are addressing Christ’s comment of “everything you do to one of My less fortunate brothers, you do to me.” For that reason I would like to personally thank each of you, because you are helping those who are forgotten, abandoned and disenfranchised. Your work is an enormous service.
We all remember what Jesus said: “I was starving and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; ill and you visited me; I was in jail and you came to me.” In this way we strive to see Christ in every person which is forgotten and abandoned by society.”
Background
His Excellency Thomas Gullickson was born on 14 August, 1950 in Sioux Falls USA. In 1976 he was ordained as a priest. In 1981 he began preparing to serve in the Church’s diplomatic corps, studying at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. He defended his doctorate thesis on canonical law.
In May 1985 Thomas Gullickson entered the diplomatic service. He has worked at Vatican diplomatic offices in Rwanda, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Jerusalem and Germany.
In 2004 Pope John Paul II assigned Fr. Thomas Gullickson Apostolic Nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago and appointed Titular Archbishop of Polymartium. On 11 November 2004 he received his Episcopal consecration from Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo. He concurrently served as Nuncio to Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, and Grenada and as Apostolic delegate to the Antilles (Anguilla, Aruba, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, the Dutch Antilles, Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands).
21 May 2011 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Gullickson Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine.
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