Bishop Hovera was born in the family of clandestine Greek-Catholics in Ivano-Frankivsk, where he grew up. After graduation from school he joined a clandestine theological seminary.^[1]

He was ordained as priest for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv on 30 May 1990, after completing clandestine theological studies, and was appointed as a parish priest in Velyka Berezovytsia. Fr. Hovera continued his studies in the Catholic University of Lublin from 1996 until 1999. After returning to Ukraine he was appointed as a vice-rector of the Major Theological Seminary in Ternopil (1999–2004). During 2004–2007 he again continued his studies, but this time in Rome, in the Pontifical Oriental Institute with a licentiate degree in pastoral theology. In 2007 he was appointed as a Rector of the Theological Seminary in Ternopil.^[1]

On 15 January 2008 Fr. Hovera was appointed, and on 7 April 2008 was consecrated to the Episcopate as the Titular Bishop of Caesariana. The principal consecrator was Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.^[2]

His father, Yaroslav Hovera, was a prisoner in the Soviet Union Gulag and spent 15 years in the corrective labor camp in Karaganda.^[3]

Bishop Hovera has a two brothers, who also are a clergymen: Rev. Andriy Ivan Hovera (born 1966), Synkellos of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Ternopil–Zboriv, and Rev. Vasyl Hovera (born 1972), Apostolic Administrator for Apostolic Administration of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.