Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)[a] is a major

Ukrainian Greek Catholic
archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church
that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic
Church
Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the Українська греко-католицька
second-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the церква
Latin Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire
Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The
incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

The church regards itself as a successor to the acceptance of

Abbreviation UGCC
Christianity by Grand Prince Volodymyr the Great, the founder of
the medieval state of Kievan Rus'. The foundation of the Type Particular
Orthodox Church in Rus' is traditionally dated to 988 AD. In church (sui
1596, by the terms of the Union of Brest, this Rus' or Ruthenian iuris)
Church transferred from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Classification Eastern
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the jurisdiction of
Catholic
the Holy See, thereby forming the Ruthenian Uniate Church. The
"Union of Brest" was a treaty between the Ruthenian Orthodox Orientation Eastern
Church in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the Christianity
leadership of the Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and All Ruthenia Theology Catholic
— Michael III — on one part, and the Latin Church under the
Theology
leadership of Pope Clement VIII on the other part.[4]
Polity Episcopal
Following the partitions of Poland, the eparchies of the Governance Synod of the
"Ruthenian Uniate Church" (Latin: Ecclesia Ruthena unita)[5][6] Ukrainian
were liquidated in the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Catholic
Prussia. Only the three eparchies that came under Austrian
Church[1]
jurisdiction remained of the Brest Union. In 1963, the church was
recognized as Ukrainian through the efforts of Yosyf Slipyi. Pope Francis
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav
In 1963, the ordinary (or hierarch) of the church was granted the
Shevchuk[2]
title of "Major Archbishop". He currently holds the title of "Major
archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia". However, the hierarchs and faithful Parishes c. 3993
of the church acclaim their ordinary as "Patriarch" and have Region Mainly: Ukraine
requested Papal recognition of this honour. Minority:
Canada, the
Names United States,
Australia,
In its early years, the church was called the "Ecclesia (Ruthena) France, the
unita" in Latin, often Anglicized as the "Ruthenian Uniate United
Church, where "Ruthenia" is the Anglicization of Rus' the Kingdom,
medieval kingdom that ruled what is nowadays, Ukraine, Belarus Germany,
and Western Russia, and "uniate" means "part of a union" in this
Brazil, Poland,
case the Union of Brest (1595).[7] However, the term "Uniate"
became a term of abuse in writings by Orthodox authors, and fell
of out favour among Greek Catholics themselves. The people in Lithuania and
this church were referred to by the Catholic hierarchy primarily as Argentina.
Graeci catholici (Greek Catholics) because they used the "Greek"
Language Ukrainian,
or Byzantine Rite, as well as more specifically Rutheni catholici
Church
(Ruthenian Catholics). The leader of the Church was called
Slavonic
Metropolita Kioviensis[8] or "Metropolitan of Kiev" and
sometimes also "of Galicia and all Rus'" until 1805. Liturgy Byzantine Rite
Headquarters Cathedral of
The Austrian Empire later used Griechisch-katolisch (German for
the
"Greek Catholic") as a catch-all term for Eastern Catholics under
its rule until 1918. Resurrection,
Kyiv, Ukraine
The Ruthenian population of Galicia and Bukovyna began to Founder Michael
increasingly identify themselves as Ukrainian, emphasizing the Rohoza (as
connection to Ukrainians in the Russian Empire, in the late 19th
Ruthenian
and early 20th centuries. The papal statistical yearbook Annuario
Uniate Church)
Pontificio began referring to the church as Ukrainian from 1912.[9]
In the wake of the creation of the West Ukrainian People's Origin 988,
Republic in 1918, the church was also increasingly referred to as establishment
Ukrainian in pastoral letters. During the interwar period, the word of the
"Ukrainian" was well-established in the diasporan parishes. Most Metropolitanate
documents from the Vatican did not officially change the church's of Kyiv
name until 1963.
1596, Union of
The first use of various names of the church are listed here. Brest
Brest, Polish–
Uniate Church (Latin: Ecclesia unita Ukrainian: Унійна Lithuanian
Церква) — since 1596, at its foundation;[9] Commonwealth
Ruthenian Uniate Church (Latin: Ecclesia Ruthena Separated from Ecumenical
unita, Ukrainian: Руська Унійна Церква) — from the Patriarchate of
17th century, in official church documents;[9]
Constantinople
Greek Catholic Church (Latin: Ecclesia Graeco- (1596, as
Catholica, Ukrainian: Греко-Католицька Церква) —
since 1774; by the decision of Empress Maria-Theresa, Ruthenian
to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic and Armenian Uniate Church)
Catholic Churches);[9] Separations Ukrainian
Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite Orthodox
(Ukrainian: Українська Католицька Церква Greek Catholic
візантійського обряду) — since 1912, in the papal Church
statistical yearbook Annuario Pontificio);[9]
Members 5.5 million[3]
Ukrainian Catholic Church (Latin: Ecclesia Catholica
Ucrainae, Ukrainian: Українська Католицька Other name(s) Ukrainian
Церква) —since the early 1960s) Atanasii, Atanasii. Catholic
"Greek Catholic Church" (http://www.encyclopediaofukr Church
aine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CG%5CR%5 Ukrainian
CGreekCatholicchurch.htm). Internet Encyclopedia of
Ukraine.; Greek Church
Uniate Church
Official website ugcc.ua (http://
ugcc.ua)
 Kyivan Catholic Church (Ukrainian: Київська
Католицька Церква) — since 1999, approved by the
Synod of Bishops of the UGCC.[9]

History

Ruthenian Orthodox Church to the Union of

Brest
St. George's Cathedral in Lviv.
The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was created with the Union
of Brest in 1595/1596, yet its roots go back to the very beginning
of Christianity in the Mediaeval Slavic state of Ruthenia. Byzantine missionaries exercised decisive
influence in the area. The 9th-century mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Great Moravia had
particular importance as their work allowed the spread of worship in the Old Church Slavonic language.
The Byzantine-Greek influence continued, particularly with the official adoption of Byzantine rites by
Prince Vladimir I of Kyiv in 988 when there was established the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Metropolis of Kyiv and all Ruthenia. Later at the time of the Great Schism (ca 1054) the Ruthenian
(Rusyn) Church took sides and remained Orthodox.

Following the devastating Mongol invasion of Ruthenia and the sack of Kiev in 1240, Metropolitan
Maximus of Kyiv moved to the town of Vladimir-on-Klyazma in 1299. In 1303, at the request of the
Ruthenian kings of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia (Ruthenia), Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople
created a separate Metropolis of Halych which included the western parishes of the original Metropolis of
Kyiv and all Ruthenia. The new metropolis did not last for long (inconsistently throughout most of the 14th
century), and its new Metropolitan Peter of Moscow was consecrated as the Metropolitan of Kiev and all
Ruthenia rather than Metropolitan of Halych.

Just before his death, Peter moved his episcopal see from Vladimir to Moscow. During his reign, the
Metropolitanate of Lithuania was established in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while the Metropolis of
Halych was also re-established after his death. In 1445, the Metropolitan Isidore, with his see in Moscow,
joined the Council of Florence and became the papal legate for all Ruthenia and Lithuania. After Isidore
suffered prosecution by the local bishops and royalty of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, he was exiled from
Muscovy, while the Muscovite princes appointed their own Metropolitan Jonah of Moscow without the
consent of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

For this reason, Patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople reorganized the Ruthenian Church in the Polish–
Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its new primates were styled "Metropolitans of Kiev, Galicia and all
Ruthenia". He appointed Gregory II Bulgarian as the new Greek Catholic primate, who rejoined the
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople under Dionysius I of Constantinople in 1470.

From the Union of Brest to the Partitions of Poland

This situation continued for some time, and in the intervening years what is now Western and Central
Ukraine came under the rule of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish king Sigismund III Vasa
was heavily influenced by the ideals of the Counter-Reformation and wanted to increase the Catholic
presence in Ukraine. While the clergy of the Ruthenian lands were technically ruled from Constantinople,
the Ruthenian Orthodox bishops were appointed by the Polish Catholic monarch, often with disastrous
results. In the Eparchy of Volodymyr, for example, two different lay noblemen were both appointed as
bishop by the Polish king. Both "bishops" hired mercenaries and fought a
pitched battle over control of the Eparchy, before the Polish king finally
stepped in and appointed one of the two candidates to an adjacent Orthodox
See.

Meanwhile, the religious renewal caused by the Counter-Reformation

among Latin Catholics in Poland and Lithuania drew the envy of Orthodox
clergy. With the encouragement of the Society of Jesus, four bishops of the
Ruthenian Church signed the Union of Brest in 1595, broke from the Religions in the Polish–
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and reunited with the Roman Lithuanian Commonwealth
Catholic Church under the authority of the Holy See, while continuing to in 1573:
say the Byzantine Rite in Old Church Slavonic. The Union of Brest was Catholic
also motivated by outrage over the insult to the Primacy of the See of Kiev Orthodox
implicit in the recent promotion of the See of Moscow to a Patriarchate by Calvinist
Jeremias II of Constantinople. In 1596 the Ruthenian Bishops finalized their
agreement with the Holy See.[4]

The union was not accepted by all the members of the Ruthenian Orthodox
Church in these lands, and marked the creation of Greek Catholic Church
and separate eparchies that continued to stay Orthodox among which were
Lviv eparchy, Peremyshel eparchy, Mukachevo eparchy and Lutsk eparchy
that at first accepted the union but later oscillated back and forth, depending
on who was the Bishop.
Religions in the Polish–
There was an attempt to resolve the conflict between Orthodox and Greek Lithuanian Commonwealth
Catholics by adopting "Articles for Pacification of Ruthenian people" in in 1750:
1632.[10] Following that, both churches existed legally in the Polish– Latin Catholic
Lithuanian Commonwealth with Metropolitans of Kyiv, one, Josyf Greek Catholic
Veliamyn Rutsky, Greek Catholic, and another, Peter Mogila, Orthodox.

Following the Union of Brest, the new Greek Catholic church was widely supported by both the Ukrainian
clergy and local Christians.[11] According to Ludvik Nemec, the creation of the Uniate church was a
turning point for the development of Ukrainian national awareness - the separation from Russian-dominated
Orthodoxy made the Ukrainian population more aware of the linguistic and cultural differences from
Russia, and the Ukrainian identity started to sharply develop in the 16th and 17th century.[11] Greek
Catholicism became the dominating religion in Ukraine, and "the Ukrainians became almost strangers to
the Russians".[12][11]

At the same time, the Uniates were not treated on par with Roman Catholics in Poland-Lithuania; Greek
Catholics were excluded from the Polish Senate, and bishops were to be supervised by Roman Catholic
bishops. The Uniate church was neglected by Polish authorities, causing resentment towards Polish rule as
well. As the result of being alienated from both Polish Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy, the
Greek Catholic church in Ukraine had developed its own separate, Ukrainian identity.[11] Greek Catholic
bishops of Ukraine such as Josaphat Kuntsevych are considered the precursors of Ukrainian
nationalism.[11]

Impact of the Partitions of the Commonwealth

After the partitions of Poland, the original diocesan structure of the Ruthenian Uniate Church was split
among the three states in the following way:

To the Russian Empire

 Archeparchy of Polotsk, Metropolitan of all Byzantine
Catholics in Russia
Eparchy of Brest
Eparchy of Lutsk
Eparchy of Lithuania The Univ Lavra was established in
1400 by the ruler Lubart's son
To the Kingdom of Prussia Theodore and remains the holiest
monastery of the Ukrainian Greek
Eparchy of Supraśl
Catholic Church.

To the Habsburg monarchy

Archeparchy of Lviv, Metropolitan of Galicia

Eparchy of Chełm
Eparchy of Przemyśl and Sambir

The Habsburg monarchy established the crown land of the

Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and also a territory called West
Galicia, which in 1803 was merged with Galicia and Lodomeria. In
1804, the combined entities became a crownland of the Austrian
Empire. The Greek Catholic Church was established on 1807 with Small wooden church and belfry in
its metropolitan see based in Lemberg. Its suffragan dioceses the village of Selets, Drohobych
included Chelm and Przemyśl.[13] Following the 1809 Treaty of Raion from the 17th century, in the
Schönbrunn, the Austrian Empire was forced to cede most of the typical architectural style of that
territory of the former West Galicia to the Duchy of Warsaw. In region
1815, the final decision of Congress of Vienna resulted in the
cession of West Galicia to the Russian Empire. The diocese of
Chelm, which was located in West Galicia, ended up under the Russian jurisdiction.

The Russian emperor Pavel I of Russia restored the Uniate church, which was reorganized with three
eparchies suffragan to metropolitan bishop Joasaphat Bulhak.[14] The church was allowed to function
without restraint (calling its adherents Basilians). The clergy soon split into pro-Catholic and pro-Russian,
however, with the former tending to convert to Latin Catholicism, whilst the latter group, led by Bishop
Iosif Semashko (1798–1868)[15] and firmly rejected by the ruling Greek-Catholic synod remained largely
controlled by the pro-Polish clergy with the Russian authorities largely refusing to interfere.

Following the Congress of Vienna, the Russian Empire occupied so-called West Galicia (formerly in
Austrian Poland) and, temporarily, Tarnopol district, where a separate metropolitan of Galicia was
established between 1809-1815. The territory of Kholm eparchy along with Central Polish territories
became part of Congress Poland. The situation changed abruptly following Russia's successful suppression
of the 1831 Polish uprising, aimed at overthrowing Russian control of the Polish territories. As the uprising
was actively supported by the Greek-Catholic church, a crackdown on the Church occurred
immediately.[16]

The pro-Latin members of the synod were removed; and the Church began to disintegrate, with its parishes
in Volhynia reverting to Orthodoxy, including the 1833 transfer of the famous Pochaiv Lavra. In 1839 the
Synod of Polotsk (in modern-day Belarus), under the leadership of Bishop Semashko, dissolved the Greek-
Catholic church in the Russian Empire, and all its property was transferred to the Orthodox state church.
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia says that, in what was then known as 'Little Russia' (now Ukraine), the
pressure of the Russian Government "utterly wiped out" Greek Catholicism, and "some 7,000,000 of the
Uniats there were compelled, partly by force and partly by deception, to become part of the Greek
Orthodox Church".[17]
In the years following and preceding the Partitions, Catherine the Great played a huge rule in forcefully
dismantling the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. She expressed disdain towards both Greek and Roman
Catholicism while praising Protestant denominations, and was determined to reinstate Orthodoxy as the
majority religion in Ukraine.[12] As Russian troops entered Polish-controlled Ukraine to suppress the Bar
Confederation, Catherine "unleashed an Orthodox missionary crusade against the Uniate parishes of
Ukraine", and actively incited violence against Roman Catholics, Uniated and Jews, resulting in atrocities
such as the Massacre of Uman.[12]

Greek Catholic parishes were pressured to convert to Russian Orthodoxy, and priests who resisted were
expelled. More than a thousand Ukrainian Uniate parishes were taken over by Orthodox priests. According
to Larry Wolff of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the years of Polish partitions were "years of
lawless bullying in Ukraine, which remained in a state of suspended irregularity while Catherine fought her
wars and negotiated the partition".[12] Following the failure of Kościuszko Insurrection and the final
partition of Poland, the persecution of Ukrainian Greek Catholics intensified, and the church was forbidden
from accepting converts from Orthodoxy. Russian authorities harassed and arrested Uniate priests, while
Russian Orthodox priests accompanied by Russian soldiers visited Ukrainian villages and intimidated the
population into converting to Orthodoxy. Wolff notes that despite harsh persecution and heavy pressure,
"the great majority of Uniates held fast to the Union."[12]

Theodosius Rostocki wrote that in response to resistance encountered by Greek Catholics in Ukraine,
Russian authorities took over the Uniate churches: "Wherever priests and people, in spite of threats and
terrors, remained steadfast, then, even when they [the persecutors] had obtained only a few signatures from
the community, they confiscated the church with all its furnishings, took the whole village under their
spiritual administration ad drove out the Uniate priests."[12] A 19th-century historian Edward Likowski
commented on Catherine's death: "The eternal Judge called her to the justice of His judgment seat so that
she might account for the rivers of blood and tears that flowed during her reign from millions of Uniates,
solely on account of their religious conviction."[12]

The dissolution of the Greek-Catholic Church in Russia was completed in 1875 with the abolition of the
Eparchy of Kholm.[18] By the end of the century, those remaining faithful to this church began emigrating
to the U.S., Canada, and Brazil due to persecution by the Orthodox Church and the Russian Empire, e.g.
the Pratulin Martyrs. Despite being once the majority religion in Ukraine,[11] the Uniate church was now
mostly confined to Eastern Galicia.[12]

Within the lands of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest Eastern Catholic Church, priests'
children often became priests and married within their social group, establishing a tightly knit hereditary
caste.[19] Numbering approximately 2,000-2,500 by the 19th century, priestly families tended to marry
within their group, constituting a tight-knit hereditary caste.[19] In the absence of a significant culturally and
politically active native nobility (although there was considerable overlap, with more than half of the
clerical families also being of petty noble origin [20]), and enjoying a virtual monopoly on education and
wealth within western Ukrainian society, the clergy came to form that group's native aristocracy. The clergy
adopted Austria's role for them as bringers of culture and education to the Ukrainian countryside. Most
Ukrainian social and political movements in Austrian-controlled territory emerged or were highly
influenced by the clergy themselves or by their children. This influence was so great that western
Ukrainians were accused by their Polish rivals of wanting to create a theocracy in western Ukraine.[21]

The territory received by Austria in the partition of Poland included Galicia (modern western Ukraine and
southern Poland). Here the Greek-Catholic Ruthenian (Ukrainian) peasantry had been largely under Polish
Catholic domination. The Austrians granted equal freedom of worship to the Greek-Catholic Church and
removed Polish influence. They also mandated that Uniate seminarians receive a formal higher education
(previously, priests had been educated informally by their fathers), and organized institutions in Vienna and
Lviv that would serve this function. This led to the appearance, for the first time, of a large, educated class
within the Ukrainian population in Galicia.[22] It also engendered a fierce sense of loyalty to the Habsburg
dynasty. When Polish rebels briefly took control of Lviv in 1809, they demanded that the head of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Antin Anhelovych, substitute Napoleon's name in the Divine Liturgy for
that of Austrian Emperor Francis I. Anhelovych refused, and was imprisoned. When the Austrians retook
control over Lviv, Anhelovych was awarded the cross of Leopold by the Emperor.[23]

As a result of the reforms, over the next century the Greek-Catholic Church in Austrian Galicia ceased
being a puppet of foreign interests and became the primary cultural force within the Ukrainian community.
Most independent native Ukrainian cultural and political trends (such as Rusynophilia, Russophilia and
later Ukrainophilia) emerged from within the ranks of the Greek-Catholic Church clergy. The participation
of Greek Catholic priests or their children in western Ukrainian cultural and political life was so great that
western Ukrainians were accused of wanting to create a theocracy in western Ukraine by their Polish
rivals.[21] Among the political trends that emerged, the Christian social movement was particularly linked to
the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Many people saw the Austrians as having saved the Ukrainians and their
Church from the Poles, though it was the Poles who set into motion the Greek-Catholic cast of their church.

The Church in the Russian Empire and the

Soviet Union

After World War I, Ukrainian Greek Catholics found

themselves under the governance of the nations of Poland,
Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia. Under the previous
century of Austrian rule, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
attained such a strong Ukrainian national character that in
interwar Poland, the Greek Catholics of Galicia were seen by
the nationalist Polish and Catholic state as even less patriotic
than the Orthodox Volhynians. Extending its Polonization
policies to its Eastern Territories, the Polish authorities sought
to weaken the UGCC. In 1924, following a visit with St George's Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Ukrainian Catholic believers in North America and western Church built by the architect Philip Ruh in
Europe, the head of the UGCC was initially denied reentry to 1923. Protected Heritage site, Saskatoon,
Lwów (the Polish name at the time for Lviv), only being Saskatchewan[24]
allowed back after a considerable delay. Polish Catholic
priests, led by their Latin bishops, began missionary
work among Greek Catholics; and administrative
restrictions were placed on the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church.[25]

After World War II Ukrainian Catholics came under

the rule of Communist Poland and the hegemony of
the Soviet Union. With only a few clergy invited to
attend, a synod was convened in Lviv, which revoked
the Union of Brest. Officially all of the church
property was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Bishops of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. St.
Church under the Moscow Patriarchate,[26] Most of George's Cathedral, Lviv, Lviv 12.1927. Sitting:
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy went bp.Hryhory Khomyshyn, Metropolitan Archbishop
underground. This catacomb church was strongly Andrey Sheptytsky, bp. Nykyta Budka, bp.
supported by its diaspora in the Western Hemisphere. Josaphat Kotsylovsky.
Emigration to the U.S. and Canada, which had begun
in the 1870s, increased after World War II.
According to Karel C. Berkhoff, during the Nazi occupation of
Ukraine, the treatment of Christian churches by German authorities
varied from denomination to denomination.[27] The Nazi
authorities were friendly towards Ukrainian Protestants and treated
them with "magnanimity", and were left unsuppressed; pacifist
denominations were specifically favoured as well. Meanwhile,
Greek and Roman Catholics were harshly persecuted, something
that Berkhoff attributes to "Nazi hostility to the Vatican combined
with hostility to the Poles, who in Ukraine constituted the vast
majority of these Christians".[27] Roman Catholic and Uniate Stryi. The relics of the blessed of
churches were closed, and Catholic clergy was a common target of Josaphat Kotsylovsky
Nazi executions. Nazi anti-Catholic policies were extended to
Germans as well - the Catholic church in Mykolaiv was also
forcefully closed, despite most of the parishioners being ethnic
Germans.[27]

In the winter of 1944–1945, Ukrainian Greek Catholic clergy

were summoned to 'reeducation' sessions conducted by the
NKVD. Near the end of the war in Europe, the state media
began an anti-Ukrainian-Catholic campaign.[28] The creation
of the community in 1596 was discredited in publications,
which went to great pains to try to prove the Church was
conducting activities directed against Ukrainians in the first
Map of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in
half of the 20th century.[28]
the province of Lviv in 1939
In 1945, Soviet authorities arrested, deported, and sentenced to
forced-labor camps in Siberia and elsewhere the church's
metropolitan Yosyf Slipyi and nine other Greek Catholic bishops, as well as hundreds of clergy and leading
lay activists. In Lviv alone, 800 priests were imprisoned.[28] All the above-mentioned bishops and
significant numbers of clergymen died in prisons, concentration camps, internal exile, or soon after their
release during the post-Stalin thaw.[29] The exception was metropolitan Yosyf Slipyi who, after 18 years of
imprisonment and persecution, was released in 1963 thanks to the intervention of Pope John XXIII. Slipyi
took refuge in Rome, where he received the title of Major Archbishop of Lviv, and became a cardinal in
1965.[29]

The clergy who joined the Russian Orthodox Church were spared the large-scale persecution of religion
that occurred elsewhere in the country (see Religion in the Soviet Union). In the city of Lviv, only one
church was closed (at a time when many cities in the rest of Ukraine did not have a working church).
Moreover, the western dioceses of Lviv-Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk were the largest in the USSR and
contained the majority of the Russian Orthodox Church's cloisters (particularly convents, of which there
were seven in Ukrainian SSR but none in Russia). Orthodox canon law was also relaxed on the clergy
allowing them to shave beards (a practice uncommon to Orthodoxy) and conduct liturgy in Ukrainian as
opposed to Church Slavonic.

The Ukrainian Catholics continued to exist underground for decades and were the subject of vigorous
attacks in the state media. The clergy gave up public exercise of their clerical duties, but secretly provided
services for many lay people.[28] Many priests took up civilian professions and celebrated the sacraments in
private. The identities of former priests could have been known to the Soviet police who regularly watched,
interrogated and fined them, but stopped short of arrest unless their activities went beyond a small circle of
people.[28] New secretly ordained priests were often treated more harshly.[28]
The church even grew during this time, and this was
acknowledged by Soviet sources. The first secretary of the
Lviv Komsomol, Oleksiy Babiychuk, claimed:

in this oblast, particularly in the rural areas, a large

number of the population adheres to religious
practices, among them a large proportion of
youth. In the last few years, the activity of the
Uniates [Ukrainian Catholics] has grown, that of
representatives of the Uniates as well as former
Uniate priests; there are even reverberations to
renew the overt activity of this Church.[28]

After Stalin died, Ukrainian Catholics hoped this would lead

to better conditions for themselves, but such hopes were
dashed in the late 1950s when the authorities arrested even
more priests and unleashed a new wave of anti-Catholic
propaganda.[28] Secret ordinations occurred in exile. Secret
theological seminaries in Ternopil and Kolomyia were
reported in the Soviet press in the 1960s when their organizers The center dome of St. Joseph the
were arrested.[28] In 1974, a clandestine convent was Betrothed Ukrainian Greek Catholic
uncovered in Lviv.[28] Church in Chicago, Illinois[30]

During the Soviet era, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

did flourish throughout the Ukrainian diaspora. Cardinal Yosyf
Slipyi was jailed as a dissident but named in pectore (in secret) a
cardinal in 1949; he was freed in 1963 and was the subject of an
extensive campaign to have him named as a patriarch, which met
with strong support as well as controversy. Pope Paul VI demurred,
but compromised with the creation of a new title of major
archbishop (assigned to Yosyf Slipyi on 23 December 1963[31] ), The interior of Greek Catholic Church
with a jurisdiction roughly equivalent to that of a patriarch in an in Spas, Ukraine
Eastern church. This title has since passed to Myroslav Ivan
Lubachivsky in 1984 and thereafter to Lubomyr Husar in 2000 and
Sviatoslav Shevchuk in 2011; this title has also been granted to the heads of three other Eastern Catholic
Churches.

In 1968, when the Greek Catholic Church was legalized in Czechoslovakia, a large-scale campaign was
launched to harass recalcitrant clergy who remained illegal.[28] These clergy were subject to interrogations,
fines and beatings. In January 1969 the KGB arrested an underground Catholic bishop named Vasyl
Velychkovsky and two Catholic priests, and sentenced them to three years of imprisonment for breaking
anti-religious legislation.[28]

Activities that could lead to arrest included holding religious services, educating children as Catholics,
performing baptisms, conducting weddings or funerals, hearing confessions or giving the last rites, copying
religious materials, possessing prayer books, possessing icons, possessing church calendars, possessing
religious books or other sacred objects.[28] Conferences were held to discuss how to perfect the
methodology in combatting Ukrainian Catholicism in West Ukraine.[28]
At times the Ukrainian Catholics attempted to employ legal channels to have their community recognized
by the state. In 1956–1957, there were petitions to the proper authorities to request for churches to be
opened. More petitions were sent in the 60s and 70s, all of which were refused. In 1976, a priest named
Volodymyr Prokipov was arrested for presenting such a petition to Moscow.[28] The response to these
petitions by the state had been to sharpen attacks against the community.

In 1984 a samizdat Chronicle of the Catholic Church began to be published by Ukrainian Catholics. The
founder of the group behind this publication, Yosef Terelya, was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to seven
years imprisonment and five years of exile.[28] His successor, Vasely Kobryn, was arrested and sentenced
to three years of exile.[28]

The Solidarity movement in Poland and Pope John Paul II supported the Ukrainian Catholics. The state
media attacked John Paul II. The antireligious journal Liudyna i Svit (Man and the World) published in
Kyiv wrote:

Proof that the Church is persistently striving to strengthen its political influence in socialist
countries is witnessed by the fact that Pope John Paul II gives his support to the emigre
hierarchy of the so-called Ukrainian Catholic Church . . .. The current tactic of Pope John Paul
II and the Roman Curia lies in the attempts to strengthen the position of the Church in all
socialist countries as they have done in Poland, where the Vatican tried to raise the status of the
Catholic Church to a state within a state. In the last few years, the Vatican has paid particular
attention to the question of Catholicism of the Slavonic nations. This is poignantly underscored
by the Pope when he states that he is not only a Pope of Polish origin, but the first Slavic Pope,
and he will pay particular attention to the Christianization of all Slavic nations.[28]

By the late 1980s there was a shift in the Soviet government's attitude towards religion. At the height of
Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalization reforms the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was allowed again to
function officially in December 1989.[26] But then it found itself largely in disarray with the nearly all of its
pre-1946 parishes and property lost to the Orthodox faith. The church, actively supported by nationalist
organizations such as Rukh and later the UNA-UNSO, took an uncompromising stance towards the return
of its lost property and parishes. According to a Greek-Catholic priest, "even if the whole village is now
Orthodox and one person is Greek Catholic, the church [building] belongs to that Catholic because the
church was built by his grandparents and great-grandparents."[32]

The weakened Soviet authorities were unable to pacify the situation, and most of the parishes in Galicia
came under the control of the Greek-Catholics during the events of a large scale inter-confessional rivalry
that was often accompanied by violent clashes of the faithful provoked by their religious and political
leadership.[33] These tensions led to a rupture of relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the
Vatican.

Current situation

Membership

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world. As of 2019, it
had approximately 4.1 million members.[34] In Ukraine, the UGCC is the second largest religious
organization in terms of number of communities within the Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church has third most members in allegiance among the population of Ukraine after the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Orthodox
Church of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
predominates in three western oblasts of Ukraine, including
the majority of the population of Lviv, but constitutes a small
minority elsewhere in the country.[35][36][37]

The church has followed the spread of the Ukrainian diaspora

and has some 40 hierarchs in over a dozen countries on four
continents, including three other metropolitan bishops in
Poland, the United States, and Canada. The Church in the
diaspora including the United States and Canada is largely Bishop Paul Patrick Chomnycky in
multi-ethnic. National surveys conducted since 2000 show that London.
between 5.3% and 9.4% of Ukraine's total population are of
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.[38][39][40] In surveys,
18.6-21.3% of believers or religious people in Ukraine were Greek Catholic.[41][42] Worldwide, the faithful
now number some 6 to 10 million, forming the second largest particular Catholic Church, after the majority
Latin Church.

According to a 2015 survey, followers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church make up 8.1% of the total
population (excluding Crimea) and form the majority in 3 oblasts:[43]

Lviv Oblast — 59% of the population

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast — 57%
Ternopil Oblast — 52%

Governance

Most Ukrainian Catholic Churches have moved away from Church

Slavonic; church services are mainly in the Ukrainian language.
The Feast of the Transfiguration in
Many churches also offer liturgies in a country's vernacular (i.e.
Ukraine in 2017
German in Germany or English in Canada). Some parishes
continue to celebrate the liturgy in Slavonic even today, however,
and services in a mix of languages are not unusual.

In the early first decade of the 21st century, the major see of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was transferred
to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The enthronement of the new head of the church Major Archbishop
Sviatoslav Shevchuk took place there on 27 March 2011 at the cathedral under construction on the left
bank. On 18 August 2013, the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was dedicated and
solemnly opened.

On 5 July 2019, Pope Francis declared to the church's leaders during a meeting in the Vatican "I hold you
in my heart, and I pray for you, dear Ukrainian brothers."[44] He also advocated greater humanitarian aid to
Ukraine and warned the Church's Bishops to show "closeness" to their "faithful."[44] The Pope also told
the Church leaders to that "fruitful" unity within the Church can be achieved through three important
aspects of synodality: listening; shared responsibility; and the involvement of the laity.[44]

Position on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UGCC has promoted Ukrainian statehood and
independence. It opened its churches and cathedrals to use as bomb shelters and warehouses.[45][46] It has
used its social organisations, such as Caritas, to provide humanitarian assistance.[47] Several leading
prelates, including Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, denounced the invasion and used their
connections to the wider Catholic Church to gather support and provide information on the situation on the
ground. Despite a few moments of tension between the leadership of the UGCC and Rome, namely over
the inclusion of a Russian woman alongside a Ukrainian during the 2022 Good Friday Via Crucis, and the
Pope's words regarding the assassination of Darya Dugina, Shevchuk often emphasised Francis' support for
Ukraine during the war.[48]

On 24 December 2022, during an audience, Major archbishop Sviatoslav handed over to Metropolitan
Epiphanius for review a letter outlining the considerations of the UGCC hierarchs regarding the church
calendar reform, which aims to replace the use of the old Julian calendar with the Revised Julian calendar.
The primates decided to create a joint working group on specific proposals for calendar reform. The joint
group is initiated on the occasion of the celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical
Council, held in Nicaea in 325. In this Council, in particular, the calendar principles of church life were
determined.[49][50][51]

On 1–2 February 2023 in Lviv-Briukhovychi, the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC decided that from 1
September 2023, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine will switch to a new style (Revised
Julian calendar) for fixed holidays with the preservation of the current Paschalion, which was announced
by Supreme Archbishop Sviatoslav on February 6, 2023.[52][53] The calendar reform will have two stages.
The first refers to all fixed holidays, and the second to the Easter date which would be kept in the old
Julian. Parishes of the UGCC that are not ready to switch to the new style in 2023 have a transition period
until 1 September 2025 to make the change.[54]

On 6 February 2023, the Archeparchy of Przemyśl–Warsaw, taking into account the previous decision of
the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine[55] and the opinion of the Delegates of the Joint Diocesan
Council in Porszewice in June 2022, adopted a decree on the transition to the Revised Julian calendar from
1 September 2023.[56][57]

On 22 March 2023, the Eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul of Melbourne, according to the decree of Bishop
Mykola Bychok, decided that from 1 September 2023, the UGCC in Australia and Oceania will completely
switch to the Gregorian calendar, including Easter.[58]

According to the decree of Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh dated 22 April 2023, from 1 September 2023, the
Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Germany and Scandinavia completely switches to the Gregorian
calendar, including Paschal, in contrast to the UGCC in Ukraine, in Poland.[59]

On 9 June 2023, the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London, according to the decree of
Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, switches from 1 September 2023 to the Gregorian calendar, in particular
with Easter.[60][61]

Administration

Ruthenian Uniate (eparchies) and partition of Poland

Vilno archeparchy (Metropolitan of Kyiv) → Russia
Polotsk archeparchy (Polotsk) → Russia
Smolensk archeparchy (Smolensk) → Russia
 Lutsk-Ostroh eparchy (Lutsk) → Russia
Turow-Pinsk eparchy (Pinsk) → Russia
Volodymyr-Brest eparchy (Volodymyr) → Suprasl
eparchy in Germany
Halych-Kamianets eparchy (Lviv) → Lemberg
archeparchy (Metropolitan of Galicia) in Austria
Chelm-Belz eparchy (Chelm) → Austria
Przemysl-Sanok eparchy (Przemysl) → Austria

The administrative divisions of the

Greek Catholic church after the 1839 Synod of Ruthenian Uniate (Greek-Catholic)
Polotsk Church in 1772 (before partition of
Poland)
Archeparchy of Lemberg (Lviv, Metropolitan of Galicia)
Eparchy of Kulm and Belz (Chelm) covering Kingdom of
Poland → territory lost due to Congress of Vienna
Eparchy of Premissel and Saanig (Przemysl)
added eparchy of Stanislau (Ivano-Frankivsk)
added apostolic exarchate of Lemkowszczyna (Sanok)

Cathedrals

Ruthenian Uniate Church

(governing title Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and all Ruthenia)

1609–1746 Cathedral of the Theotokos, Vilnius by

Hypatius Pociej
1746–1809 Cathedral of Saint Trinity,[62] Radomyshl
Cathedral of the Theotokos in
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Vilnius, mother church of Ruthenian
Uniate Church
(governing title Metropolitan of Galicia, since 2005 – Major
Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia)

1816–1946 St. George's Cathedral, Lviv

1946–1989 Church liquidated by Soviet authorities
(preserved on efforts of Josyf Slipyj at Santa Sofia a Via
Boccea)
1989–2011 St. George's Cathedral, Lviv
2011–present Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection
of Christ, Kyiv
St. George's Cathedral in Lviv,
Primates mother church of Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church
1808 – 1814 Antoni of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop
of Galicia)
1816 – 1858 Michael of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia, Primate of Galicia and
Lodomeria)
 1860 – 1863 Gregory of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1864 – 1869 Spyridon of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1870 – 1882 Joseph I of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1885 – 1898 Sylvester of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1899 – 1900 Julian of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1901 – 1944 Andrew of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia)
1944 – 1963 Joseph II of Galicia (as Meteropolitan bishop of Galicia, persecution)
1963 – 1984 Joseph II of Galicia (as Major archbishop of Galicia, exile (1963-1984))
1984 – 1991 Myroslav of Galicia (as Major archbishop of Galicia, exile (1984-1991))
1963 – 1971 Vasyl Velychkovsky (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in catacombs,
locum tenens)
1971 – 1991 Volodymyr Sterniuk (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in catacombs, locum
tenens)
1991 – 2000 Myroslav of Galicia (as Major archbishop of Galicia)
2001 – 2005 Liubomyr of Galicia (as Major archbishop of Galicia)
2005 – 2011 Liubomyr of Kyiv-Galicia (as Major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia)
2011 – present Sviatoslav of Kyiv-Galicia (as Major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia)

Current administrative division

Exarchate
of Lutsk
Exarchate of Kharkiv
5
1
3 Archeparchy of Kyiv
4 6
2 8 Exarchate of Donetsk
Eparchy of 7
Mukachevo*
Exarchate of Odesa

Note: The Eparchy of Mukachevo belongs to the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church rather than the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church moved its administrative center from Western Ukrainian Lviv to a
new cathedral in Kyiv on 21 August 2005. The title of the head of the UGCC was changed from The
Major Archbishop of Lviv to The Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych.

The Patriarchal Curia of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is an organ of Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the
head of the UGCC, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, which coordinates and promotes the common
activity of the UGCC in Ukraine to make influence on society in different spheres: education, policy,
culture, etc. The Curia develops action of the Church's structures, enables relations and cooperation with
other Churches and major public institutions in religious and social areas for implementation of the Social
Doctrine of the Catholic Church through everyday life.

In 2011 the church introduced territorial subdivisions in Ukraine, metropolia.[63] A metropolitan bishop, an
archbishop of main archeparchy, may gather own metropolitan synod, decisions of which shall be approved
by the Major Archbishop.[63]

This is a list of the eparchies of the church that are subject to the Major Archbishop:

Metropolitis of Kyiv – Galicia (2005)[63]

Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Kyiv (Latin:
Archidioecesis Kioviensis, previously as uniate
diocese, 1996)
Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of
Donetsk (2002)
Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of
Odesa (2003)
Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of
Lutsk (previously as uniate diocese, 2008)
Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of
Crimea (2014 as administration in Odesa)
Ukrainian Catholic Archiepiscopal Exarchate of
Kharkiv (2014)
Metropolis of Lviv (1808–2005, 2011)[63]
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv (Latin: Vinnytsia
Archidioecesis Leopolitana Ucrainorum, 1539–1946,
1989)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sambir–Drohobych (1993)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Zboriv (1993–2000)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stryi (2000)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sokal–Zhovkva (2000)
Metropolis of Ternopil – Zboriv (2011)[63]
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Ternopil–Zboriv (1993)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Buchach (2000)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Kamyanets-Podilskyi (previously as united diocese,
2015)
Metropolis of Ivano-Frankivsk (2011)[63]
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk (1885–1946, 1989)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Kolomyia (1993)
 Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chernivtsi (2017)
Metropolis of Przemyśl–Warsaw (Poland, 1996)[63]
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Przemyśl–Warsaw (1087–1946, 1996)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Wrocław-Koszalin (1996)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Olsztyn–Gdańsk (2020)
Metropolis of Winnipeg (Canada, 1956)[63]
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg (1912)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton (1948)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada (1948)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon (1951)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of New Westminster (1974)
Metropolis of Philadelphia (United States, 1958)[63]
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia (1913)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford (1956)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago (1961)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Parma (1983)
Metropolis of Curitiba (Brazil, 2014)
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Curitiba (1962)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Prudentópolis (2014)

Eparchies subject to the Major Archbishop without being in his metropolis:

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1968)

Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Melbourne (Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, 1958)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London (England, Scotland and Wales,
1957)
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saint Wladimir-Le-Grand de Paris (France, Switzerland
and Benelux, 1960)

This is a list of eparchies of the church that are exempt (i.e. directly dependent on the Holy See):

Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Germany and Scandinavia* (1959)

Ukrainian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Italy* (2019)

* Directly subject to the Holy See

As of 2014, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is estimated to have 4,468,630 faithful, 39 bishops, 3993
parishes, 3008 diocesan priests, 399 religious-order priests, 818 men religious, 1459 women religious, 101
deacons, and 671 seminarians.[64]

Monastic orders and religious congregations

List of orders and congregations[65]

Male
Order of Saint Basil the Great
Studite Brethren
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
Congregation of the Salesian Fathers of St. Don Bosco
Miles Jesu
Missionary Congregation of Saint Andrew the Apostle

Female
Sisters of the Order of Saint Basil the Great
Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate
Sisters of St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Virgin Mary (related to Sisters of St. Joseph)
Sisters Catechists of Saint Anne (related to Sisters of Saint Anne)
Sisters of the Holy Family
Sisters of the Priest and Martyr St. Josaphat Kuntsevych
Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul (related to Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de
Paul)
Salesian Sisters
Sisters of the Most Holy Eucharist
Myrrh-bearing Sisters under the Protection of St. Mary Magdalene

Prison ministry of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

In contemporary Ukraine prison ministry of chaplains does not
exist de jure. The prison pastoral care was at the very heart of the
spirituality of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church throughout her
history. Prison Pastoral of the UGCC was restored in 1990 after the
Church, formerly forbidden, emerged from the underground.
Pastoral care has grown steadily from several establishments in the
Western Part of Ukraine to more than 40 penal institutions in every
region of the country. Since 2001 the UGCC is the co-founder of Prison chaplains of the UGCC, 2008
the Ukrainian Interdenominational Christian Mission "Spiritual and
Charitable Care in Prisons" including twelve Churches and
Denominations. This Mission is a part of the World Association of Prison Ministry. The most active prison
chaplains are the Redemptorist Fathers.

In the year 2006 Lubomyr Husar established in the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC the Department for
Pastoral Care in the Armed Forces and in the Penitentiary System of Ukraine. This structure implements a
general management of Prison Ministry. The chief of the Department is Most Rev. Michael Koltun, Bishop
of Sokal and Zhovkva. The head of the Unit for penitentiary pastoral care is Rev. Constantin Panteley, who
is directly responsible for coordination of activity in this realm. He is in direct contact with 37 priests in 12
eparchies who have been assigned responsibility for prison pastoral care. Those pastors ensure regular
attendance of penitentiary facilities, investigatory isolators and prisons.

Ukrainian diaspora
The Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States has limited growth opportunities, because in the
United States and in other non-Ukrainian jurisdictions, many parishes choose to focus on immigrants from
Ukraine and their children (during the time the children are subject to parental control) as opposed to
making new converts. They maintain this characteristic by resisting the use of English in liturgies and, in
some parishes, insisting on the use of the Julian Calendar to calculate dates of Christmas, Easter, and other
religious holidays, thus placing themselves outside the U.S. mainstream. The Ukrainian Catholic Church
considers the descendants of those who migrated from Ukraine to be part of a "diaspora." Around 40% of
the diocesan priests in the diaspora are married, compared to 90% marriage rate of diocesan priests in
Ukraine.[66]

By the time the immigrants’ children, and especially the immigrants’ grandchildren, grow up, they have
learned English in school, know little to no Ukrainian, and are otherwise fully assimilated into U.S. Most of
the children are either members of the Latin Church or join some non-Catholic denomination. To the extent
that a Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States is able to make progress toward adaptation (e.g. the
use of English in its liturgies and in the conducting of parish business), the next group of immigrants arrives
from the old country and insists that the church maintain its old world characteristics without change and all
former progress is reversed. For this reason, many parishes and Eparchies have begun to focus on
producing converts.

In Canada, the wave of immigration from Galicia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to the
establishment of a number of Ukrainian Catholic churches in the Prairie provinces.[67] The Ukrainian
Catholic Church is also represented in other provinces, for example by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of
Toronto and Eastern Canada, which includes dioceses in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, and the
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of New Westminster in British Columbia.

De-Latinization vs. Traditionalism

Background

Even before the Second Vatican Council the Holy See declared it important to guard and preserve the
customs and distinct forms for administering the sacraments in use in the Eastern Catholic Churches (Pope
Leo XIII, encyclical Orientalium Dignitas).[68] After the Russian Revolution of 1905, the underground
parish of the Russian Greek Catholic Church in St. Petersburg split between the followers of Pro-
Latinisation priest Fr. Aleksei Zerchaninov and those of Pro-Orientalist priest Fr. Ivan Deubner. When
asked by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky to make a decision on the dispute, Pope Pius X decreed that
Russian Greek Catholic priests should offer the Divine Liturgy Nec Plus, Nec Minus, Nec Aliter ("No
more, No Less, No Different") than priests of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believers.[69][70]

In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, liturgical de-latinization began with the 1930s corrections of the
liturgical books by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. According to his biographer Cyril Korolevsky,
Metropolitan Andrey opposed use of coercion against those who remained attached to Latin liturgical
practices, fearing that any attempt to do so would lead to a Greek-Catholic equivalent of the 1666 Schism
within the Russian Orthodox Church.[71]
Following the 1964 decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum during the Second Vatican Council and several
subsequent documents, Latinisations were discarded within the Ukrainian diaspora. Meanwhile, among
Byzantine Catholics in Western Ukraine, forced into a persecuted and secret existence following the Soviet
ban on the UGCC, the latinizations remained, "an important component of their underground
practices",[72] in illegal parishes, seminaries, and religious communities. After proscription of the UGCC
was lifted in 1989, priests and hierarchs arrived from the diaspora and began to enforce a liturgical
conformity that has been met with considerable opposition.

In response, many priests, nuns, and candidates for the priesthood found themselves, "forced towards the
periphery of the church since 1989 because of their wish to 'keep the tradition'." In some eparchies,
particularly those of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil-Zboriv, the bishops would immediately suspend any
priest who, "displayed his inclination toward 'traditionalist' practices".[73]

In the February 2003 issue of Patriayarkhat, the official journal of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church,
an article appeared written by a student at the Ukrainian Catholic University, which since its 1994
foundation has been, "the strongest progressive voice within the Church". The article named priests and
parishes in every eparchy in Ukraine as being involved in "a well-organized movement" and who
described themselves as "traditionalists". According to the article, they constituted "a parallel structure"
with connections with the Society of St. Pius X and with a charismatic leader in Fr. Basil Kovpak, the
Pastor of St. Peter and Paul's Church in the suburb of Lviv-Riasne.[74]

According to Vlad Naumescu, "Religious life in a traditionalist parish followed the model of the
'underground church.' Devotions were more intense, with each priest promoting his parish as a 'place of
pilgrimage' for the neighboring areas, thus drawing larger crowds on Sunday than his local parish could
provide. On Sundays and feast days, religious services took place three times a day (in Riasne), and the
Sunday liturgy lasted for two and a half to three hours. The main religious celebrations took place outside
the church in the middle of the neighborhood, and on every occasion traditionalists organized long
processions through the entire locality. The community was strongly united by its common opponent, re-
enacting the model of the 'defender of faith' common to times of repression. This model, which presupposes
clear-cut attitudes and a firm moral stance, mobilized the community and reproduced the former
determination of the 'underground' believers."[75]

Basil Kovpak and the Society of St. Josaphat

According to Vlad Naumescu, during the early 1990s, priests of the Society of Saint Pius X began visiting
Western Ukraine and made contact with, "a group of Greek Catholic priests and lay members that favored
liturgical latinization (an important component of their underground practices) and helped them organize
into an active society."[76]

In 1999, Basil Kovpak and two other traditionalist UGCC priests asked Society of Saint Pius X Superior
General Bishop Bernard Fellay to become their spiritual leader. The reasons for this move were that the
three priests hoped to obtain both approval and support from fellow Traditionalist Catholics in the West. In
September 2000, Bishop Fellay agreed and the Priestly Society of St. Josaphat was founded.[77]

The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat extends the SSPX's criticism of indifferentism and Modernism in the
Catholic Church to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. They oppose certain decisions of the Second
Vatican Council and aspects of ecumenism and interreligious dialogue practiced by the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Hierarchy and the Holy See.

In addition to opposing the banning of pre-Vatican II Latin liturgical practices and devotions, the Society
rejects the shortened Divine Liturgy and the mirroring of the Mass of Paul VI that has been introduced from
the Ukrainian diaspora, as well as the replacement of the traditional Church Slavonic liturgical language
with the vernacular Ukrainian language. As an alternative, Kovpak and his fellow Greek Catholic
traditionalists celebrate what they consider the Pravdyvyi ("True") Rite,[78] which often lasts two and a half
to three hours.[79]

On 10 February 2004 Cardinal Lubomyr Husar declared Kovpak excommunicated over his links to the
SSPX.[80] Kovpak announced his plans to appeal to the Holy See.[81] The Sacra Rota Romana accepted
his appeal and declared Kovpak's excommunication null and void for lack of canonical form.[82] The
process was immediately restarted and Kovpak's second decree of excommunication was confirmed by the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 21 November 2007.[83] While pro-Kovpak Ukrainian
traditionalists have often been accused of having links to the SSPX solely for financial reasons, they would
not, according to Vlad Naumescu, have been able to survive as a movement without the money donated to
them by Roman Rite traditionalists.[84]

The Society operates a seminary in Lviv, where the seminarians are taught by Kovpak and by SPPX priests
visiting from Poland. The Society also consists of a group of Greek Catholic nuns, who were forced to
leave the Basilian Order in 1995, "because of their 'traditionalist' ideas"[77] and who now reside in the
house where Blessed Nicholas Charnetsky died following his release from the Gulag. The room in which
Kyr Nicholas died is now the convent's chapel.[85]

Unlike the Ukrainian orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Kovpak and the PSSJK reject both Sedevacantism
and Conclavism.

Sedevacantism and Conclavism in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

In 2008, a group of Basilian priests from Slovakia, after relocating to the Pidhirtsi monastery, declared that
four of them had been consecrated bishops without permission of the Pope or the Major Archbishop. The
"Pidhirtsi fathers" have claimed they opposed de-latinization, and also further claim that the members of the
hierarchy of the Ukrainian Greek catholic church follows liberal theology due to ecumenism.

Because they had consecrated bishops without the authorization of Rome they were as of consequence
officially excommunicated in 2008, in 2009 they constituted themselves as the Ukrainian Orthodox Greek
Catholic Church.

Having elected Czech Basilian priest Fr. Anthony Elias Dohnal as "Patriarch Elijah", they declared on 1
May 2011 that both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were excommunicated and that the Holy
See was vacant (Sedevacantism). They added: "The Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate is now commissioned
by God to protect the orthodox doctrine of the Catholic Church, including the Latin Church. Only after an
orthodox Catholic hierarchy and an orthodox successor to the Papacy is elected, will the Patriarchate be
relieved of this God-given duty."[86][87]

On 14 October 2019, the UOGCC broke with their former policy of Sedevacantism and embraced
Conclavism. They announced they had elected Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Apostolic
Nuncio to the United States, as their Pope.[88][89]

In a 2014 article in The New York Times about the UOGCC, Patriarch Elijah and his followers were
alleged to be Pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian, and violently opposed to the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution. In the
same article, Kyr Ihor Vozniak, UGCC Archeparch of Lviv, was quoted as saying that the UOGCC is
financed and secretly led by the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR RF)
(Russian: СВР РФ) in order to introduce anarchy and chaos into the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.[90]
According to the Lviv-based newspaper Ekspres, Fr. Dohnal, alias Patriarch Elijah, was a KGB informer
inside the Latin Diocese of Litoměřice before the Fall of Communism in the Czechoslovak Socialist
Republic. In support of their claims, Ekspres published a document identifying Fr. Dohnal as a KGB mole
with the code name "Tonek." The UOGCC denies the accusation.

See also
Major events: Christianization of Kyivan Rus, Ruthenia,
Conversion of Kholm Eparchy
Western Ukrainian Clergy: List of Major Archbishops of
Kyiv-Galicia and List of Metropolitans and Patriarchs of
Kyiv, Andrey Sheptytsky, Yosyf Slipyi, Hryhoriy
Khomyshyn, Josaphata Hordashevska
List of eparchies of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Dzhublyk
Supporting organizations: Ukrainian Catholic University,
Ukraine prison ministry, Priestly Society of Saint
Josaphat
Related organizations: Ruthenian Greek Catholic
Church (Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo),
Belarusian Greek Catholic Church
Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
Prairie cathedral

Notes
a. Ukrainian: Українська греко-католицька церква,
romanized: Ukrainska hreko-katolytska tserkva; Latin:
Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Ucrainae

References
1. Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church (http://www.gcat
The interior of St. George's Church in
holic.org/dioceses/conference/214.htm)
Chervonohrad
2. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav: Pope wants Ukrainian
Greek-Catholic Church to develop and flourish (https://w
ww.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-07/pope-wants-
ukrainian-greek-catholic-church-to-flourish.html)
3. "Склад і територія" (http://ugcc.ua/official/ugcc-today/su
chasniy_stan_70010.html). ugcc.ua. Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20190830092403/http://ugcc.ua/officia
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Own Ranks"" (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/world/europe/ukrainian-church-faces-ob
scure-pro-russia-revolt-in-its-own-ranks.html). The New York Times

Further reading
Articles in Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly): "Moscow, Vatican and an unpredictable weather
in Ukraine", March 2004,in Ukrainian (https://projects.zn.ua/SOCIETY/moskva,_vatikan_i_n
eperedbachuvana_pogoda_v_ukrayini.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2020021
3172850/https://projects.zn.ua/SOCIETY/moskva,_vatikan_i_neperedbachuvana_pogoda_v
 _ukrayini.html) 13 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine and in Russian (https://zn.ua/SO
CIETY/moskva,_vatikan_i_nepredskazuemaya_pogoda_v_ukraine.html)
"Account of the history of the Unia and its disestablishment in 19th Century Russia" in
Russian (https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221333/http://www.pravoslavie.ru/arhiv/0505
13111111/)
Orientales Omnes Ecclesias, Encyclical on the Reunion of the Ruthenian Church with
Rome His Holiness Pope Pius XII, Promulgated on December 23, 1945.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Greek Catholics in America" (https://en.wikisource.org/wi
ki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Greek_Catholics_in_America). Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Gudziak, Borys A. (2001). Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, The Patriarchate
of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest. Harvard University Press.
Cambridge, MA.
Chirovsky, A. As pope and Russian patriarch meet, Ukraine fears a "shaky" Vatican (https://
web.archive.org/web/20160612230209/http://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/as-pope-and-russia
n-patriarch-meet-ukraine-fears-a-shaky-vatican/). The Ukrainian Weekly. 19 February 2016.

External links
Official website (English) (http://www.ugcc.org.ua/en/)
Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (https://synod.ugcc.ua/)
Information Resource of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (English) (http://news.ugcc.ua/)
Official website (http://www.kyiv.ugcc.org.ua/) of the Kyiv Archeparchy
Official website (http://www.ugcc.lviv.ua) of the Lviv Archeparchy
St. Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church (https://www.saintelias.com/)
Website dedicated to the Byzantine-Slavic tradition in the Catholic Church (http://unici.pl/)
English website (https://risu.ua/) of the Religious Information Service of Ukraine
Article on the UGCC by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA web site (https://cnewa.org/easter
n-christian-churches/toc/the-catholic-eastern-churches/from-the-orthodox-church/the-ukraini
an-catholic-church/)
www.damian-hungs.de (in German) (http://www.damian-hungs.de/geistliches/ostkirchen/ukr
ainische-griechisch-katholische-kirche/)

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