Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

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The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), also known as the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is one of the successor Churches to the acceptance of Christianity by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great (Ukrainian Volodymyr) of Kiev (Kyiv), in 988. UGCC is the largest Eastern Rite sui juris particular church in full communion with the Holy See, and is directly subject to the Roman Pope. The Primate of the Church, in union with the Pope, holds the office of Archbishop-Major of Kiev-Halych and All Rus', though the hierarchs of the church have acclaimed their primate "Patriarch" and have requested Papal recognition and elevation. The Church is now geographically quite widespread, having some 40 hierarchs in over a dozen countries on four continents, including three other metropolitans in Poland, the USA, and Canada.

Within Ukraine itself, the UGCC is a minority faith of the religious population, being a distant second to the majority Eastern Orthodox faith. However, since the Ukrainian Orthodox were split into at least three denominations around the onset of independence in the 1990s, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church denomination thereby accidentally became the second largest religious organization in Ukraine in terms of number of communities. In terms of number of faithful, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church ranks third in allegiance among the population of Ukraine, after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchy, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchy. Currently, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the dominant faith in several western oblasts of Ukraine, and although spread throughout the country, is a small minority elsewhere.

Contents

History

Early pre-history

The foundation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was laid by the communion of the Patriarch of Constantinople with the Popes in Rome throughout most of the first millennium (until 1054) and intermittent communion thereafter. Early inroads of the apostolic Catholic Church included the evangelism of 'first-called' apostle, St. Andrew to the region in the first century AD, and the presence of a representative of the region from the Greek colonies along the Black Sea at the first Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325. Some three hundred years later, Pope St. Martin of Rome was exiled to the territory of today's Ukraine by the Greek Emperor in Constantinople (654655 AD).

Two centuries later, the relics of Pope St. Martin were retrieved by the Greek/Slavonic brothers from Macedonia, Saints Cyril and Methodius, while passing through today's Ukraine on their mission to the Khazars of today's Russia. Later, these brothers would lay the foundation of Christianity in today's heartland of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Western Ukraine. Cyril and Methodius were sent from Constantinople at the request of the ruler of Great Moravia, an empire which included the westernmost portions of modern Ukraine. In Vel'ka Morava (Great Moravia) these brothers created an alphabet, known as "Cyrillic" (most likely Glagolitic) which enabled the local population to worship God in Slavonic.

In response to local disputes with clerics of the Latin Church, Sts. Cyril and Methodius appealed in person to the Bishop of Rome in 867, bringing with them the relics of Pope St. Martin. Their labors and request were met with approval from the Bishop of Rome, and their continued efforts planted the Christian faith, at once both Greek and Catholic, into Western Ukraine. Later, their efforts, and those of their apostles, led to the development of the Cyrillic alphabet and the translation of the Christian Scriptures and service (liturgies) of the Greek Church into the "Old Church Slavonic" language (sometimes refered to as "Old Macedonian") in the nation of Bulgaria. Today, most Ukrainian Catholic Churches have moved away from Church Slavonic and use Ukrainian. Many churches also offer liturgies in the official language of the country the Church is in, for example, German in Germany or English in Canada; however, some eparchies continue to recite the liturgy in Slavonic even today.

Old Ruthenian period

These developments in the Roman Empire, Great Moravia, and Bulgaria set the stage for the conception of metat the Baptism of Kiev ordered by the Saint Vladimir at the Dnieper (Dniepr) River in 988. From the beginning, the Metropolitans of Kiev resided at Pereyaslav in Ukraine, then Kiev (1037). The identity and further separate development of the Kievan Church was achieved by the election of Metropolitans, native and/or not confirmed by the Patriarch of Constantinople (Ilarion, 1051-1054; Klym Smolyatich 1147-1154; and, Hryhoriy Tsamblak 1415-1419).

Following the Mongol annihilation of Kiev in the 13th century, the Metropolitan of Kiev moved to Vladimir in 1299. By 1326, the Metropolitan had settled in Moscow, and by 1328 had changed the title of Metropolitan of Kiev for the title Metropolitan of Moscow. The separate legal tradition of the Russian Church, as differentiated from the church in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was codified in the decision of the first properly Russian Church Council of the Hundred Chapters ('Stoglav') in 1448, followed by the formal separation of the church of Rus' into separate Russian (Muscovite) and Ruthenian (Kievan) Metropoliae in 1453.

Middle Ruthenian period

Meanwhile, for the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Kyiv, the loss of the Metropolitan of Kyiv in 1299 was rapidly supplanted by the creation of the Metropolia of Halych for Southern Rus in 1303. In 1352, the Metropolitan of Halych for Ukraine began to relocate back to Kyiv; thereafter, the Kyivan Church was headed by the Metropolitan of Kyiv-Halych and All Rus. The Metropolitan of Moscow opposed the creation of this Metropolia at Halych/Kyiv. This church governed most of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, often from the city of Navahrudak in today's Belarus. Between 1054 and 1448, this Ruthenian Church continued to send representatives to the ecumenical councils called by the Pope of Rome Citation needed, but also succumbed to increasing pressure by her mother church among the Greeks in Constantinople to cease communion with the Bishop (Pope) of Rome. There was partial support in the Ruthenian Church lands of Ukraine and Belarus for the union ratified at the Council of Florence, but no representative was sent to the Catholic Council of Trent in 1545.

The era of Catholic-Orthodox rivalry and separation

The memory of the Council of Florence on the Ruthenian lands of Ukraine and Belarus, which had passed under the control of the states of Lithuania and Poland after the decline of the Ukrainian-centered empire of Rus', bore concrete fruit in the Union of Brest (Berest') in 1596, which united the Ruthenian Church of the Ukrainian and Belarusyn lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Pope of Rome. This union was not accepted by all the members of the Greek Church in these lands, and marked the beginning of the creation of separate Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches on the lands of Ukraine and Belarus. Due to violence, the Metropolitan of the Kyivan Greek Catholic Church left Kyiv early in the 1600s and settled in Navahrudak and Wilno in Belarus.

The Ukrainian period

The final step of the full particularity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was then effected by the development of the middle Ruthenian language into separate Ukrainian and Belarusian language around 1600 to 1800. This local church was later persecuted by the absorption of the Orthodox portion of the Ukrainian/Belarusian Churches into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1686, and by the violent repression and dismantling of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in four successive waves (1772, 1795, 1831 and 1865).

The name of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was cemented in the mid to late 1800s. In the mid-19th century, Nikolay Kostomarov and other Kyivan intellectuals proposed that the name of their country be changed from "Malorossiya" Little Russia to "Ukrayina," Ukraine a name which became widespread among the Rusyns as early as 1600. This national name change was then adopted by most Rusyns/Ukrainians over the next several decades (1850s-1920s).

19th century: West Ukrainian period

Russian Tsarist persecution soon led to the virtual elimination of Ruthenian/Ukrainian Catholics on the territory of the Russian Empire during the 1800s, and the granting by the Pope of Rome of the transfer of the quasi-patriarchal powers of the Major-Archepiscopate of Kyiv/Halych and all Rus' to the Metropolitan of L'viv in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1803. Suffragan sees included Ivano-Frankivs'k (then called Stanisławów) and Przemyśl (Peremyshl). By the end of the century, the faithful of this church began emigrating to the U.S., Canada, and Brazil.

20th century: persecution and internationalization

Ukrainian Catholics found themselves under the governance of the nations of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia after World War I. The aftermath of World War II placed Ukrainian Catholics under the rule of the Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc regimes, which attempted the complete destruction of this church. However, the church survived underground, as well as in the diaspora created by the mass emigration to the Western hemisphere, which began in the 1870s. The persecution led to the re-establishment of parishes eastward throughout Ukraine, and the further spread of the Church into Russia (especially Siberia) and Kazakhstan).

In 1990, the Ukrainian Catholic Church emerged from the catacombs some 3 to 5 million strong on her home territory in Ukraine. Worldwide, the faithful now number some 6 to 10 million, forming the largest Catholic Church, after the majority Latin Church. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of the parishes in Halychina and Volhynia were violently seized by the Uniates, leading to blooshed and to rupture of relations between the Patriarch of Moscow and the Pope.

In the 2000s, the construction has begun for the transfer of the major see of the Ukrainian Catholic Church back to its historic home in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv; however, this move remains controversial for some Ukrainian Catholics, who view Lviv in Western Ukraine as the true stronghold of Ukrainian Catholicism, having supported and protected the Ukrainian Catholic Church through long periods of genocide and persecution. Moving the Ukrainian Catholic Church to Kyiv, therefore, has taken on political overtones in the Church. The move tends to be supported by those people who favor the appointment of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarch to oversee the Ukrainian Catholic Church. This issue has caused much controversy in the modern Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has moved its administrative center from western Ukrainian Lviv to a new cathedral in Kyiv on 21 August of 2005. The title of the head of the UGCC will be changed from The Major Archbishop of Lviv to The Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych.

See also

External References

Articles in Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly)

External links


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