[2] He completed his secondary education in June 1966, and the same year he entered the Ukrainian Pontifical College of Saint Josaphat in Rome.

In 1977 he received the degree of Doctor of Theology after defending his work entitled "The concept of the Church in Mineya Chetia Metropolitan Dmitry Tuptal of Rostov ".

[citation needed] In 1975, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Josyf Slipyj, commissioned a translation of the Bible from a Slavic text for use in worship.

[1] During the work on the translation, the idea arose that it would be better to use the texts of the first complete Bible in the Old Slavonic language, which was published in the Ukrainian lands in Ostrih in 1581.

[citation needed] In 2000 there was published Rafail Turkoniak's translation of the Bible into modern Ukrainian from Hebrew and Ancient Greek languages.

[2] Accomplishing a Ukrainian translation of Ostroh Bible by Rafail Turkoniak laid a foundation for the creation of an Ivan Kardash Centre of Anciently Printed Books.