 September 14, 2003 saw the beatification of Bishop Hopko by John Paul during a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia.In February 1990, as Communist rule ended in Eastern Europe, Archbishop Kocisko led a delegation of American Byzantine Catholic hierarchs to the Eparchies of Prešov and Mukacevo to show solidarity with them after 40 years of separation and persecution.Archbishop Kocisko resigned as Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh on June 11, 1990, his seventy-fifth birthday.