Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)[a] is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the third-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the Latin Church and the Syro-Malabar Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
This article is about the Church that was formerly called "Ruthenian" or the "Ruthenian Uniate Church". For the Eastern Catholic Church presently called "Ruthenian", see Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church.Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
UGCC
Catholic Theology
Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church[1]
c. 3993
Mainly: Ukraine
Minority: Canada, the United States, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Poland, Lithuania and Argentina
Michael Rohoza (as Ruthenian Uniate Church)
988, establishment of the Metropolitanate of Kyiv
1596, Union of Brest
Brest, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (1596, as Ruthenian Uniate Church)
5.5 million[3]
- Ukrainian Catholic Church
- Ukrainian Greek Church
- Uniate Church
The church regards itself as a successor to the metropolis that was established in 988 following the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great. Following the establishment of the metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus', by the terms of the Union of Brest, the Ruthenian church was transferred from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the jurisdiction of the Holy See in 1596, thereby forming the Ruthenian Uniate Church. The Union of Brest was a treaty between the Ruthenian Orthodox Church in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the leadership of the metropolitan of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus'—Michael III—on one part, and the Latin Church under the leadership of Pope Clement VIII on the other part.[4]
Following the partitions of Poland, the eparchies of the Ruthenian Uniate Church (Latin: Ecclesia Ruthena unita)[5][6] were liquidated in the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Only the three eparchies that came under Austrian jurisdiction remained of the Brest Union. In 1963, the church was recognized as Ukrainian through the efforts of Yosyf Slipyi.
In 1963, the ordinary (or hierarch) of the church was granted the title of "Major Archbishop". He currently holds the title of "Major archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia". However, the hierarchs and faithful of the church acclaim their ordinary as "Patriarch" and have requested Papal recognition of this honour.
In its early years, the church was called the "Ecclesia (Ruthena) unita" in Latin, often anglicized as the "Ruthenian Uniate Church, where "Ruthenia" is the anglicization of Rus', the medieval kingdom that ruled what is now Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia, and "uniate" means "part of a union", in this 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 this church were referred to by the Catholic hierarchy primarily as Graeci catholici (Greek Catholics) because they used the "Greek" or Byzantine Rite, as well as more specifically Rutheni catholici (Ruthenian Catholics). The leader of the Church was called Metropolita Kioviensis[8] or "Metropolitan of Kiev" and sometimes also "of Galicia and all Rus'" until 1805.
The Austrian Empire later used Griechisch-katolisch (German for "Greek Catholic") as a catch-all term for Eastern Catholics under its rule until 1918.
The Ruthenian population of Galicia and Bukovyna began to increasingly identify themselves as Ukrainian, emphasizing the connection to Ukrainians in the Russian Empire, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The papal statistical yearbook Annuario Pontificio began referring to the church as Ukrainian from 1912.[9] In the wake of the creation of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918, the church was also increasingly referred to as Ukrainian in pastoral letters. During the interwar period, the word "Ukrainian" was well-established in the diasporan parishes. Most documents from the Vatican did not officially change the church's name until 1963.
The first use of various names of the church are listed here.
Ukrainian diaspora[edit]
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.[63]
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.[64] 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.