Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Українська греко-католицька церква in Ukrainian, transcribed Ukraïnska hreko-katolitska tserkva) or Uniate is the largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion, sui iuris, with the Holy See of the Catholic Church. It separated from Roman obedience in 1054, after the Great Schism, but was readmitted in 1596. The primacy of this Church, in union with the Pope, rests with the so-called Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych and All Russia, although the Ukrainian hierarchy has called for it to be elevated to Patriarch.

This Church is geographically dispersed, with 40 eparchies in a dozen countries across four continents, including three metropolitans in Poland, the United States, and Canada.

Its usual liturgical languages are the so-called Church Slavonic and Ukrainian.

History

Following the Mongol's shattering of Kievan Rus, the loose federation of East Slavic and majority-Orthodox Christian polities from which Russia's civilization-state emerged, the Grandy Duchy of Lithuania eventually came to control most of today's Ukraine. It soon united with Poland in 1385-86, began to undergo Polonization, formed a Commonwealth with Poland in 1569, and then accelerated Polonization led to the 1596 Union of Brest that created the Uniate Church, basically Orthodox believers loyal to the Pope.

Origin and Schism

The Ukrainians received the Christian faith through Eastern Roman missionaries and their churches. Consequently, they were originally connected to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 988, the Prince of Kyiv, Volodymyr Sviatoslavych, proclaimed Christianity as the official religion throughout Ukrainian lands. This same year, almost the entire population was baptized by the Dnieper River in the Byzantine Rite.

Under the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, successor of Vladimir, the Church of Kyiv continued its expansion: monasteries, churches, schools, and libraries were built, and books were translated from Greek. Yaroslav also ordered the construction of the grand St. Sophia Cathedral in 1037, which became a symbol of Ukrainian Christianity.

Yaroslav died in 1054, when the Great Schism between Western and Eastern Churches occurred. While the Eastern Romans broke their ecclesiastical communion with the See of Rome, the Christians of Kyiv remained in union with it.

Decline

After Yaroslav’s death, a difficult era began for the Church of Kyiv. For several years, the city suffered invasions by Mongols and Muslims, leading to the fall of the Kievan Rus.

After the decline of Kiev, part of the Orthodox Church moved the West, towards the territories of the Kingdom of Galicia and Volhynia, coming under the protection of the princes Volodymyr, Roman, Danilo, Lev, Yuri, and others. On the other hand, after the Mongol destruction of Kiev in the 13th century, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kiev moved to Vladimir in 1299. By 1326, the Metropolitan had settled in Moscow, and in 1328, the title of Metropolitan of Kyiv changed to that of Metropolitan of Moscow.

In the 15th century, the Kingdom of Galicia came under the rule of the Poles and Lithuanians.

In 1439, the Metropolitan Isidore of Kyiv attended the Council of Florence and agreed to a union act between Catholics and Orthodox. In contrast, the Russian Orthodox Church refused to unite with Rome, advocating for Moscow to be another Rome and that the Russian Orthodox Church be the mother of all Eastern Churches.

The dissolution of the Greek Catholic Church in territories governed by the Russian Empire was completed in 1875 with the abolition of the Eparchy of Kholm.

Return to Communion with Rome and Russian Empire influence

Saint Josaphat, Saint of Ruthenia, (1580-1623)

The final step in the particularity of the Greek Catholic Church was the development of the Ukrainian language from the language of Kievan Rus between 1600 and 1800, a dialect that distinguished itself from Belarusian and Ruthenian.

During the 16th century, Ukrainian speaking bishops turned to Moscow to seek official support and protection from Rome. As the Russian Orthodox Church spread westward, Polish Latinism from the east was gaining ground, and new sects were also emerging in rebellion against Rome, increasing the number of Protestants.

In 1596, when with the support of the King of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa, the entire Ukrainian speaking ecclesiastical hierarchy concluded the union with Rome, proclaiming the "official communion" between Kiev and Rome at the Union of Brest.

Empress Catherine II of Russia issued a decree on April 22, 1794, to remove all obstacles for the incorporation of the Uniates to Orthodoxy. The Metropolis of Kiev, with the eparchies of Lutsk and Ostroh, Volodymyr-Brest, Pinsk and Turaŭ, Polatsk and Smolensk, was abolished by the Russian authorities in 1798 after the disappearance of Poland as a result of the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795. The part that remained under Russian control included the Right Bank of the Dnieper and modern Belarus, while the eparchies of Lvov, Chełm (or Kholm), and Przemyśl (Eastern Galicia) remained under the Austrian Empire's control (now part of Ukraine's Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and part of Ternopil oblasts). In 1798, the eparchies of Volodymyr-Brest, and of Lutsk and Ostroh were restored. The Polish uprising of 1806 allowed for the restoration of the metropolis based in Polatsk, but the tsar only accepted the name of "Metropolis of the Uniate Church in Russia" . On September 26, 1808, the Pope transferred the primacy from the Metropolitan of Kiev-Halych and all Rus to the new Metropolitan of Lemberg (Lvov) in the Austrian Empire, whose suffragan eparchies were Ivano-Frankivsk and Przemyśl.

In the more eastern regions of Podolia, the population mostly reverted to Orthodoxy. Initially, the Russian authorities were tolerant of the Greek Catholic Church and allowed it to operate without restrictions (calling adherents Basilian). However, the clergy soon divided into pro-Catholic and pro-Russian factions, with the former tending to convert to Latin Rite Catholicism, while the latter group was led by Bishop Iosif Semashko (1798-1868). In 1828, the Church in the Russian Empire was reorganized, creating the metropolitanates of Polatsk in Belarus and Lithuania with its seat in Žyrovičy.

The situation changed abruptly after the successful Russian suppression of the Polish uprising of 1831, aimed at eliminating Russian control over Polish territories. Since the uprising was actively supported by the Greek Catholic Church, immediate repression followed. The pro-Latin members of the synod were expelled, and the Church began to disintegrate, with its parishes in Volhynia returning to Orthodoxy, including the transfer in 1833 of the Pochaiv Monastery. As Orthodox Russia expanded its control over the dissident territories, the union was gradually suppressed, in 1839, the Polatsk Synod (in present-day Belarus), under the direction of Bishop Semashko, dissolved the Greek Catholic Church in the Russian Empire, and all its properties were transferred to the state Orthodox Church by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, who abolished the union across Russian territories. By the late 18th century, Greek Catholics had almost disappeared.

The metropolitanates of Belarus and Lithuania were abolished, with only the eparchy of Chełm in present-day Poland remaining. Russian influence completely eliminated Greek Catholicism, and about 7 million faithful joined the Russian Orthodox Church. The dissolution of the Greek Catholic Church in Russia was completed in 1875 with the abolition of the eparchy of Chełm.

In the 18th century, most of the western territories came under the rule of the Tsars of Moscow, who began a systematic persecution of Uniate church. Only the western part of Austrian Galicia, with Lvov as its capital, and later Polish Second Republic, was able to preserve ecclesiastical communion with Rome. This Church thrived under the charismatic leadership of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who served as Archbishop of Lviv from 1900 to 1944.

The Austrians granted freedom of worship to the Greek Catholic Church and eliminated Polish influence. They also ordered that seminarians receive formal higher education (previously, priests had been informally educated by their parents) and organized institutions in Vienna and Lemberg to serve this purpose. However, there was some fear in Rome that some elements of the Church might succumb to Orthodox apostasy:. The Pope in 1891 sent Cardinal Ciasca, who held the Lviv Synod from September to October of the same year; the Augustinians of Spain considered the Synod to be highly successful.

At the end of the 19th century, many faithful emigrated to the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Of the estimated 5 million Greek Catholics living in Central Europe at the start of the 20th century, only about 10,000 were outside the Austro-Hungarian borders. It was estimated that there were 3,134,000 Greek Catholics, mostly Ukrainians (and the rest Poles) in the Metropolis of Lviv, including its suffragan eparchies of Stanislav (or Ivano-Frankivsk) and Przemyśl, while the Metropolis of Făgăraș and Alba Iulia with its suffragans of Lugoj, Oradea, and Gherla had 1,267,000 Greek Catholics, mostly Romanians (and the rest Hungarians). In Hungary, the eparchies of Mukachevo and Prešov, suffragans of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, had 562,000 faithful, mostly Ruthenians (and the rest Slovaks and Hungarians), and the eparchy of Križevci, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, had 25,000 faithful, both Croats and Ruthenians.

On February 22, 1903, the Tsar decreed religious freedom, allowing the Greek Catholic Church to function. This Church prospered under the charismatic leadership of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who was the archbishop of Lviv from 1900 to 1944. In 1907, Pope Pius X orally and secretly gave him full powers to organize the Byzantine Rite Church in the Russian Empire. Sheptytsky was internally exiled in Russia between 1914 and 1917, and upon his return to Lviv, using the powers granted by Pius X, on May 29, 1917, he created the "Apostolic Exarchate for Byzantine Rite Ukrainian Faithful in Russia and Siberia," appointing Abbot Klymentiy Sheptytsky as Exarch, confirmed by Pope Benedict XV on February 24, 1921. On May 28, 1917, he appointed the first Apostolic Exarch for the Greek Catholics of Russia (Exarchia apostolica pro catholicis ritus byzantini in Russia), Leonid Feodorov, who was confirmed by Benedict XV on March 1, 1921.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholics found themselves under the different states such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. As they extended their policies of Polonization to their eastern territories, the Polish authorities sought to weaken the Greek Catholic Church. On September 17, 1939, Sheptytsky used his exceptional powers again to create 3 exarchates: the Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Volhynia, Polesia, and Podlachia (Exarch Mykola Charnetskyi); the Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Greater Ukraine (Exarch Josyf Slipyj); and the Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Belarus (Locum Tenens Mykola Charnetskyj, and from September 17, 1940, Exarch Antoniy Nemantsevich). Pope Pius XII accepted these exarchates on November 22, 1941.

Ministers of the Greek Catholic Church during the Great Patriotic War.

When World War II began, most of Galicia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939, and at the end of the war, the Ukrainian Greek Catholics found themselves under the control of the communist regimes of Poland and the Soviet Union. The new communist administration acted decisively to eliminate the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine: in April 1945, the Soviet authorities arrested, deported, and sentenced Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj (who had become Sheptytsky's coadjutor after his death on November 1, 1944) on April 11, 1945, along with eight other Greek Catholic bishops (Nykyta Budka, Grigorij Chomyshyn, Iván Lyatyshevskyi, Mykola Carneckyj, Peter Werhun, Josaphat Josyf Kocylovskyj, Hryhoriy Lakota, Teodor Yuriy Romzha), as well as hundreds of clergy and lay activist leaders. In Lviv alone, 800 priests were arrested. With only a few clergy members invited to attend, a synod was convened in Lviv on March 8 and 9, 1946, to revoke the Union of Brest. Officially, all the Church's properties were transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. All the bishops and a significant number of clergy died in prisons, concentration camps, internal exile, or shortly after their release. The exception was Metropolitan Slipyj, the head of the Church, who was released in 1963 through the intervention of Pope John XXIII, and sent into exile in Rome. In that same year (December 23, 1963), Pope Paul VI gave him the title of Major Archiepiscopal of the Ukrainians of Lviv, with authority similar to an Eastern Patriarch. In 1965, he was made cardinal, though he had been named in pectore in 1949, and died in 1984. Emigration to the United States and Canada, which had begun in the 1870s, increased after World War II.

The clergy who joined the Russian Orthodox Church were spared from the large-scale religious persecution that occurred in other parts of the country. In the city of Lviv, only one church was closed, at a time when many cities elsewhere in Ukraine had no functioning church. Other concessions by the Soviet government allowed the Orthodox dioceses of Lviv-Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk to retain the majority of the 7 existing convents, whereas none were left in Russia. Canon law for the Orthodox Church was also relaxed, allowing clergy to shave their beards and perform liturgies in Ukrainian instead of Church Slavonic.

Most of the Greek Catholic clergy in Ukraine remained underground, and Ukrainian Catholics continued to exist as the "Church of the Catacombs" for decades and were subjected to heavy attacks in the state-run media. The clergy gave up the public practice of their clerical duties but continued to do so secretly. Between 1944 and 1989, 25 Greek Catholic bishops were secretly consecrated in the Soviet Union. Many priests took up civilian professions and celebrated the sacraments in private. Soviet police regularly observed, interrogated, and fined ex-priests whose illegal activities were known, but they were not detained unless their activities became too widely known. Newly ordained priests were treated more harshly.

In the late 1950s, the authorities arrested more priests and unleashed a new wave of anti-Catholic propaganda. Secret ordinations took place in exile, and the secret theological seminaries in Ternopil and Kolomyia were exposed in Soviet press in the 1960s when their organizers were arrested. In 1974, a clandestine convent was discovered in Lviv. During the Soviet era, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church flourished across the Ukrainian diaspora. While Slipyj was in the Gulag, in 1959 he appointed 6 administrators for the Greek Catholics of the Soviet Union: Vasyl Velyckovskyj (for Volhynia, Greater Ukraine, and Belarus); Mykola Revt' (for Western Siberia); Illia Blavatskyi (for Central Siberia); Stepan Ratych (for Eastern Siberia); Olexiy Zarytskyi (for Kazakhstan); and Josafat Fedoryk (for Central Asia).

20th Century - Soviet Marxist persecution

Main article: Religious persecution

Interior of St. George's Cathedral in Lviv.

With the start of World War II, most of Galicia was annexed by the Soviet Union. 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". 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.

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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.

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From Restoration to the Present Day

The Faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Demand the Legalization of the Church. Moscow, 1989.

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. 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 1989, towards the end of communism, Ukrainian Greek Catholics were granted the right to register with the Government of Ukraine. With the support of local authorities, Ukrainian Catholics gradually reclaimed their old parishes. This marked the beginning of a strong resurgence of Catholicism in the region.

In 1991, Cardinal Miroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, the exiled head of the Ukrainian Church, was allowed to leave Rome and reside in Lviv. In 1992, Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops from around the world convened for a synod in the city for the first time in several decades. In the same year, the remains of Cardinal Josyf Slipyi were transferred from Rome to Lviv, where they were buried next to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. In July 1993, four new dioceses were created.

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.

After the restoration of this Church in Ukraine, the synod of bishops began to meet regularly. The first general council of Ukrainian Greek Catholics was held in Lviv in October 1996. Due to Cardinal Lubachivsky's poor health, Lubomyr Husar was appointed Administrator of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In August 2000, a new synod held in Buchach decided on the creation of two new eparchies in Ukraine: Stryi and Sokal, while reorganizing the eparchies of Ternopil and Zboriv into the new eparchies of Ternopil-Zboriv and Buchach. Since 2000, the Church's territory was expanded to all of Ukraine, except for the situation of the Mukachevo eparchy. On December 14, 2000, Cardinal Lubachivsky passed away and was succeeded by Lubomyr Husar, who was later created a cardinal.

In June 2001, Pope John Paul II made an Apostolic Journey to Ukraine at the invitation of the president and the Greek Catholic and Latin bishops. The main sites of the visit were Kyiv, the national capital, and Lviv. During his visit to Ukraine on June 27, 2001, the pope beatified 27 martyrs and 3 Servants of God and blessed the new Catholic University of Ukraine.

In 2004, the seat of the Major Archbishop was moved back to Kyiv by Pope Benedict XVI. On March 27, 2011, Sviatoslav Shevchuk became the new primate.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church embarked on a campaign of liturgical reforms of de-Latinization, which included the removal of stations of the cross, the rosary, and the monstrance from its liturgy and parishes. This led in 2000 to Father Vasyl Kovpak and a small group of followers opposed to the reforms and ecumenism to organize the Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat, linked to the Society of Saint Pius X. On November 21, 2007, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith excommunicated Kovpak. In 2008, a group of anti-reform priests from the Basilian monastery in Pidhirtsi declared that four of them had been consecrated as bishops without the pope's or Major Archbishop's permission. They were excommunicated in 2008, and in 2009, they formed the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Orthodox Church.

According to the Pontifical Yearbook 2016, by the end of 2015, in the 33 jurisdictions of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, there were: 42 bishops, 3,826 parishes, 2,973 secular priests, 432 religious priests, 843 religious, 1,371 religious women, 126 permanent deacons, and 731 seminarians.

Currently, this Church has 3,240 parochial communities, 78 monasteries, 755 Sunday schools, 12 educational institutions, 2,721 churches (with 306 more under construction), 16 bishops, 1,976 priests, 590 monks, 729 nuns, and 1,298 seminarians.

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Pope Francis on Sunday beatified seven Greco-Catholic bishops jailed and tortured during the Communist era on the final day of his visit to Romania. “The new blessed ones suffered and sacrificed their lives, opposing a system of totalitarian and coercive ideology,” the pontiff told some 60,000 worshippers attending mass on a “Field of Liberty” in the small central town of Blaj. “These shepherds, martyrs of faith, garnered for and left the Romanian people a precious heritage which we can sum up in two words: freedom and mercy,” added Francis, while praising the “diversity of religious expression” in mainly Orthodox Romania. Regime officials detained the beatified bishops overnight on October 28, 1948, accusing them of “high treason” after they refused to convert to Orthodoxy. The Greek-Catholic Church was outlawed under 1948-89 Communist rule. – Buried in secret –

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Reports indicate that Russian and DPR-LPR militants have systematically persecuted non-Orthodox religious groups, frequently using the Russian Orthodox Church as a pretext for their actions. Documented incidents include the torture of detainees by individuals disguised as clergy and the kidnapping of religious leaders such as Ihor Kozlovsky. These actions highlight how religion is exploited to justify violence and establish control, closely tied to the ideology of the "Russian World," supported by both the Kremlin and the Moscow Patriarchate. Coynash has criticized the Vatican for failing to address these abuses in its 2016 declaration with Patriarch Kirill.

2022 War

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) has suffered severe persecution during the ongoing conflict with Russian forces. Churches have been destroyed, sacred objects evacuated, and clergy targeted for assassination. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the UGCC, has had to move between safe houses for protection.

Russian occupation authorities have banned the UGCC and other Catholic organizations, including Caritas and the Knights of Columbus, in areas such as Zaporizhzhia, labeling them extremist. By 2024, UGCC clergy were completely absent from Russian-occupied regions, as militants seized church properties and barred access to places of worship. Two priests, Fathers Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, were detained in Berdyansk in 2022 and reportedly face torture and harsh conditions in Russian detention facilities.

Since 2022, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed at least 660 religious buildings, according to experts. Archbishop Borys Gudziak has highlighted that religious institutions in Russian-controlled territories can only operate if aligned with Kremlin policies, further underscoring the systematic suppression of religious freedom.

Gregorian Calendar adoption

In 1916, Bishop Hryhoriy Khomyshyn of Stanislav introduced the Gregorian calendar after the end of Tsarist occupation in most of Galicia. However, due to pressure from Orientalists, Moscow supporters, and Andrey Sheptytsky, who had returned from captivity, the reform was later reversed.

In December 2020, Supreme Archbishop Svyatoslav stated that the Greek Catholic Church would address the calendar transition together with Orthodox counterparts, emphasizing that this is not a doctrinal issue but aims to heal church divisions. He suggested that the shift to celebrating Christmas on December 25 should be initiated by the laity. In December 2022, Svyatoslav and Metropolitan Epifaniy discussed calendar reform and established a joint working group to explore the issue, marking the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council.

In February 2023, the Synod of the UGCC decided that, starting September 1, 2023, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine would adopt the Gregorian calendar for fixed holidays, while maintaining the Julian calendar for Easter. Similar transitions followed in Poland, Australia, Germany, the UK, and North America during 2023.

Christmass of 2023 and onwards is celebrated on the 25th of December, following the Gregorian Calendar.

Jurisdictions

• Major Archeparch of Kyiv - Galicia and All Russia (in Ukraine), from which the following archebishops' exarchates depend:
  • Crimea
  • Donetsk
  • Kharkiv
  • Odessa
  • Lutsk

• Metropolitan Archeparchies:
  • Kyiv - Vyshhorod (also Apostolic Visitor to Kazakhstan and Central Asia). United to the major archeparchy of Kyiv - Halych. Its suffragan eparchies include:
    • Lviv (in Ukraine)
    • Buchach (in Ukraine)
    • Ivano-Frankivsk (in Ukraine)
    • Kolomyia - Chernivtsi (in Ukraine)
    • Sambir - Drohobych (in Ukraine)
    • Sokal - Yovkva (in Ukraine)
    • Stril (in Ukraine)
    • Ternopil - Zboriv (in Ukraine)
  • Curitiba (in Brazil) with the suffragan eparchy of:
    • Immaculate Conception in Prudentópolis (in Brazil)
  • Philadelphia (in United States) with the suffragan eparchies of:
    • St. Josaphat in Parma (in the United States)
    • St. Nicholas in Chicago (United States)
    • Stamford (United States)
  • Przemyśl - Warsaw (in Poland) with the suffragan eparchy of:
    • Wrocław - Gdańsk (in Poland)
  • Winnipeg (in Canada) with the suffragan eparchies of:
    • Edmonton (in Canada)
    • New Westminster (in Canada)
    • Saskatoon (in Canada)
    • Toronto (in Canada)

• Eparchies:'
  • St. Peter and St. Paul in Melbourne (in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania) suffragan to the Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese of Melbourne
  • Holy Virgin of Protection in Buenos Aires (in Argentina) suffragan to the Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese of Buenos Aires
  • Holy Family in London (United Kingdom).
  • St. Vladimir the Great in Paris (France).

• Apostolic Exarchates:
  • Germany and Scandinavia (in Germany, Finland, Sweden, and Norway)

• Titular Seats:
  • Kamenets

• Religious Orders:
  • Basilian Order of St. Josaphat
  • Ukrainian Studite Monks

On January 14, 2013, the pope appointed an Apostolic Visitor for Ukrainian faithful in Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Venezuela.

Society of Saint Josaphat

The Catholic Traditionalist of Byzantine Rite assosiation, Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat (SSJK) which is assosiated with the Traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), its based on Lviv.

Primates

Metropolitans of Kyiv (1596-1838)

• Mikhailo Rohoza (1596-1599)
• Ipatii Potii (1600-1613)
• Iosif Veliamin Rutski (1613-1637)
• Rafakhil Korsak (1637-1640)
• Antin Sielava (1641-1655)
• Havrïil Kolenda (1666-1674)
• Kyprian Zotxovskikh (1674-1693)
• Lev Szlubic-Zalenskikh (1694-1708)
• Yurikh Vinnickikh (1708-1713)
• Lev Luka Kiszka (1714-1729)
• Athanasius Heptitsky (1729-1746)
• Florian Hrebnicki (1748-1762)
• Felix Filipp Volodkovich (1762-1778)
• Ludovik Lev Heptitski (1778-1779)
• Iason Smogorkhevski (1780-1786)
• Theodor Rostotski (1787 - 1805)
• Irakli Lissovski (1808 - 1809)
• Hryhori Kokhanovych (1809 - 1814)
• Iosafat Bulhak (1818 - 1838)

Metropolitans of Lviv (1838-1984)

• Mikhakhlo Levitski (1838 - 1858)
• Hryhori Yakhimovych (1859 - 1866)
• Spiridon Litvinovych (1866 - 1869)
• Iosif Sembratovich (1870 - 1882)
• Sylvester Sembratovich (1882 - 1898)
• Iulian Sas-Kulovsky (1899 - 1900)
• Andrei Heptitsky (1900 - 1944)
• Iosif Slipiy (1944 - 1984)

Major Archbishops of Lviv (1984-2005)

• Miroslav Ivan Lubachivsky (1984 - 2000)
• Lubomyr Husar (2000 - 2005)

Major Archbishops of Kyiv-Halych (2005-)

• Lubomyr Husar (2005 - 2011)
• Sviatoslav Shevchuk (2011-)

See also

• Russian and Soviet persecution of the Catholic Church
• Fátima Virgin's Mary apparitions and the request of Russia consecration

• Roman Catholic Church
• American Christianity
• Canadian Christianity
• Infant baptism
• Future of Christianity
• Christianity in Africa
• Christianity in Asia
• Christianity in Australia
• Christianity in Europe
• Christianity in North America
• Christianity in South America
• Christianity

External link

• NAZI PRIESTS AND PSEUDO-HISTORIANS: HOW THE UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE IN LONDON CREATES AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF UKRAINE
• In the Canadian community of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the death of a parishioner from the SS "Galicia" division was announced.