He was ordained a priest of the Archeparchy of Lviv in 1938 by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and then continued his doctoral studies in theology in Austria.

After World War II, he was unable to return to Ukraine and emigrated to the United States, where he continued his pastoral work, first as a priest at St. Peter and Paul Church in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning in 1949, and then from 1968 as a teacher at the St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Washington.

The Ukrainian Holy Synod elected Lubachivsky coadjutor to Cardinal Josyf Slipyj in 1979.

In 1985, Pope John Paul II gave him the title of Cardinal Priest of S. Sofia a Via Boccea.

[1] Soviet authorities lifted the ban against the Church in 1989, and Lubachivsky along with other leadership of the UGCC officially returned to Lviv from exile on 30 March 1991.