Changes

<ref>{{cite web|title=The Church That Stalin Couldn’t Kill: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Thrives Seventy Years after Forced Reunification|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-church-that-stalin-couldn-t-kill-ukrainian-greek-catholic-church-thrives-seventy-years-after-forced-reunification/|date=8 March 2016|publisher=Atlantic Council}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite web|title=The Church That Stalin Couldn’t Kill: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Thrives Seventy Years after Forced Reunification|url=https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-church-that-stalin-couldn-t-kill-ukrainian-greek-catholic-church-thrives-seventy-years-after-forced-reunification/|date=8 March 2016|publisher=Atlantic Council}}</ref>

<ref>{{cite web|title=Silenced Church. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Between the Soviet Authorities and the Vatican (1944–1978)|url=https://www.dhi.waw.pl/veranstaltungen/tagungen/detail/silenced-church-the-ukrainian-greek-catholic-church-between-the-soviet-authorities-and-the-vatican-1944-1978/|date=15 February 2024|publisher=Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau}}</ref> The new communist administration acted decisively to eradicate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: in April [[1945]], all its bishops were arrested and sentenced to forced labor. Regime officials detained seven Greco-Catholic bishops in Romania overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to "Orthodoxy".<ref name=PopeFrancis/> The Metropolitan [[Josyf Slipyi]], head of the Church, was sent to prison in [[Siberia]]. He was not released until 1963, after which he was exiled to Rome. In the same year, he was given the title of ''Major Archbishop of the Ukrainians in Lviv'', and in 1965 he was made a cardinal. He died in 1984.

<ref>{{cite web|title=Silenced Church. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Between the Soviet Authorities and the Vatican (1944–1978)|url=https://www.dhi.waw.pl/veranstaltungen/tagungen/detail/silenced-church-the-ukrainian-greek-catholic-church-between-the-soviet-authorities-and-the-vatican-1944-1978/|date=15 February 2024|publisher=Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau}}</ref> The new communist administration acted decisively to eradicate the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: in April [[1945]], all its bishops were arrested and sentenced to forced labor. Regime officials detained seven Greco-Catholic bishops in Romania overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of "high treason" after they refused to convert to "Orthodoxy".<ref name=PopeFrancis/> The Metropolitan [[Josyf Slipyi]], head of the Church, was sent to prison in [[Siberia]]. He was not released until 1963, after which he was exiled to Rome. In the same year, he was given the title of ''Major Archbishop of the Ukrainians in Lviv'', and in 1965 he was made a cardinal. He died in 1984.

{{cquote|Only two weeks before the San Francisco conference, on 11 April 1945, a detachment of NKVD troops surrounded the St. George Cathedral in Lviv and arrested Metropolitan Slipyj, two bishops, two prelates and several priests. All the students in the city’s theological seminary were driven from the school, while their professors were told that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had ceased to exist, that its Metropolitan was arrested and his place was to be taken by a Soviet-appointed bishop. These acts were repeated all over Western Ukraine and across the Curzon Line in Poland. At least seven bishops were arrested or were never heard from again. There is no Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church still free in the area. Five hundred clergy who met to protest the action of the Soviets, were shot or arrested.<ref name=Manipulation>{{cite web|url=https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/11/kgb-christians-putin-stalin-kgbs-history-manipulating-orthodox-church/|title=KGB ‘Christians’: Putin, Stalin, and the KGB’s History of Manipulating the Orthodox Church|date=11 January 2016|publisher=[[Breitbart]]}}</ref>}}

{{cquote|Only two weeks before the San Francisco conference, on 11 April 1945, a detachment of NKVD troops surrounded the St. George Cathedral in Lviv and arrested Metropolitan Slipyj, two bishops, two prelates and several priests. All the students in the city’s theological seminary were driven from the school, while their professors were told that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church had ceased to exist, that its Metropolitan was arrested and his place was to be taken by a Soviet-appointed bishop. These acts were repeated all over Western Ukraine and across the Curzon Line in Poland. At least seven bishops were arrested or were never heard from again. There is no Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church still free in the area. Five hundred clergy who met to protest the action of the Soviets, were shot or arrested.<ref name=Manipulation>{{cite web|url=https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/11/kgb-christians-putin-stalin-kgbs-history-manipulating-orthodox-church/|title=KGB ‘Christians’: Putin, Stalin, and the KGB’s History of Manipulating the Orthodox Church|date=11 January 2016|publisher=[[Breitbart]]}}</ref>}}

[[File:People Demand Freedom of Religion. Lviv, September 17, 1989.jpg|thumbnail|left|People Demand Freedom of Religion. Lviv, September 17, 1989.]]

[[File:People Demand Freedom of Religion. Lviv, September 17, 1989.jpg|thumbnail|left|People Demand Freedom of Religion. Lviv, September 17, 1989.]]

In the late 1980s, there was a change in the Soviet government's attitude towards religion. In December 1989, as the fall of [[communism]] was approaching, Ukrainian Greek Catholics were granted the right to register with the government and were allowed to function once again.<ref>{{cite web|title=10. Revival of the Church 1989|url=https://ugcc.ua/en/church/history/revival-of-the-church/|date=|publisher=Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church}}</ref> Nearly all of their parishes prior to 1946 and their properties were in the hands of the Orthodox Church. Supported by Ukrainian nationalist groups, the Greek Catholic Church took a firm stance on the return of its lost properties and parishes, even in cases where there were almost no Catholic faithful left. With the support of local authorities, Ukrainian Catholics gradually reclaimed their former parishes. Most of the parishes in Galicia came under Greek Catholic control during the events of a large-scale interconfessional rivalry that was often accompanied by violent clashes. All of this was the prelude to a strong revival of Catholicism in the region. These tensions led to a rupture in relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See.

In the late 1980s, there was a change in the Soviet government's attitude towards religion. In December 1989, as the fall of [[communism]] was approaching, Ukrainian Greek Catholics were granted the right to register with the government and were allowed to function once again.<ref>{{cite web|title=10. Revival of the Church 1989|url=https://ugcc.ua/en/church/history/revival-of-the-church/|date=|publisher=Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church}}</ref> Nearly all of their parishes prior to 1946 and their properties were in the hands of the Orthodox Church. Supported by Ukrainian nationalist groups, the Greek Catholic Church took a firm stance on the return of its lost properties and parishes, even in cases where there were almost no Catholic faithful left. With the support of local authorities, Ukrainian Catholics gradually reclaimed their former parishes. Most of the parishes in Galicia came under Greek Catholic control during the events of a large-scale interconfessional rivalry that was often accompanied by violent clashes. All of this was the prelude to a strong revival of Catholicism in the region. These tensions led to a rupture in relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See.

Since the exile of Slipyj in 1963, the Archdiocese of Lviv was administered by the ''locum tenens'' [[Vasyl Velyckovskyj]] until his exile to [[Canada]] in 1972, and then by [[Volodymyr Sterniuk]] until 1991 when Cardinal [[Myroslav Iván Lubachivsky]], the exiled primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church since 1984, was authorized to leave Rome and take up residence in Lviv. On January 16, 1991, the surviving clandestine bishops were confirmed by the pope. In 1992, Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops from around the world were summoned to a synod in the same city for the first time in several decades, and that same year, the remains of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj were transferred from Rome to Lviv, where they were buried next to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. The synod took place between May 16 and 31, 1992, and decided on the creation of four new eparchies in Ukraine: Sambir-Drohobych, Ternopil, Zboriv (all separated from the major archdiocese of Lviv), and Kolomyia-Chernivtsi (separated from Ivano-Frankivsk), which were established on April 20, 1993. The territories of the rest of Ukraine were established as the Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Kiev–Vyshhorod on November 25, 1995.

Since the exile of Slipyj in 1963, the Archdiocese of Lviv was administered by the ''locum tenens'' [[Vasyl Velyckovskyj]] until his exile to [[Canada]] in 1972, and then by [[Volodymyr Sterniuk]] until 1991 when Cardinal [[Myroslav Iván Lubachivsky]], the exiled primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church since 1984, was authorized to leave Rome and take up residence in Lviv. On January 16, 1991, the surviving clandestine bishops were confirmed by the pope. In 1992, Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops from around the world were summoned to a synod in the same city for the first time in several decades, and that same year, the remains of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj were transferred from Rome to Lviv, where they were buried next to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. The synod took place between May 16 and 31, 1992, and decided on the creation of four new eparchies in Ukraine: Sambir-Drohobych, Ternopil, Zboriv (all separated from the major archdiocese of Lviv), and Kolomyia-Chernivtsi (separated from Ivano-Frankivsk), which were established on April 20, 1993. The territories of the rest of Ukraine were established as the Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Kiev–Vyshhorod on November 25, 1995.