page_title: Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church
section_title: Prelude (from Roman Catholics to Greek Catholics)
hierarchical_section_title: Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church / History / Prelude (from Roman Catholics to Greek Catholics)
caption_attribution_description: English: The Ukrainian True Greek Catholic Church Ukraine Українська: Українська правовірна греко-католицька церква
context_page_description: The Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church is an unregistered Eastern Independent Catholic religious movement that was established by Basilian priests predominantly from Slovakia who declared the creation of the new "church" in 2009 based in Pidhirtsi, Ukraine.
  The movement is not officially recognized in Ukraine by the religious community or state authorities. The organization is not officially excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The movement's seven founding self-consecrated "bishops" were formerly priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and former members of the Order of Saint Basil the Great. In 2009 the organization announced that it succeeded the "heretical" Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
  The organization is also known as Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate or Pidhirtsi Fathers.
  The movement has been described as anti-European Union and anti-Ukrainian nationalism as well as pro-Yanukovych and pro-Russian, as well as fervently against homosexuality which it often accuses its opponents of spreading.
context_section_description: Anthony Elias Dohnal, born 1946, was ordained as a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Litoměřice in Czechoslovakia circa 1971.   After military service, he served as a parochial vicar in Slušovice and Budišov, promoting spiritual revival.  Active in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal since 1981, he fought against the tolerance of occultism and promoted prayer groups.  In 1986 he was assigned to a "prison for nuns" and kept as a virtual prisoner.  From 1987 to 1990 he served at Dvorce, continuing with samizdat writings against liberal theology and occultism.  In 1991, together with students R. Spirik and J. Spirik, he resolved to join the Greek-Catholic Order of Saint Basil the Great (OSBM) and entered the novitiate in Warsaw.  In 1992, he transferred to the monastery in Trebišov.  Spirik and two other former students were ordained priests during 1996–1997.  Shortly after, A. Dohnal applied for permission to found a "contemplative" branch of the OSBM community.
  In 1997, Fr. Dionysius Lachovicz OSBM (born in Brazil in 1946), the General Superior of the Basilian Order, granted the group permission to be designated as an "experimental community" within the Order under his direct supervision. He appointed the community's leader, Elias Dohnal, OSBM, to direct the formation of the novices in the group, several men from the Order's novitiate in Poland.  In May 1998, after groundless complaints and a canonical visitation, he withdrew permission for the community's special status.  The group appealed to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches for permission to establish an autonomous monastery within the territory of the Archeparchy of Prešov (Slovakia). Lachovicz was forced to confirm the suppression in December 1998 and the community members were dispersed to other assignments.
  In late 1999, at the request of the Greek-Catholic Apostolic Exarch in the Czech Republic Ivan Ljavinec for a Basilian community, and with the agreement of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Prague, Cardinal Vlk, Lachovicz founded a Basilian community in Prague, assigning to it Fr. Cyril Špiřík, his brother Fr. Metoděj R. Špiřík and their former classmate Fr. Markian Hitiuk from Ukraine, to serve at the cathedral parish in Prague.   In 2003, the Basilians and their supporters protested against the appointment of a new Greek-Catholic exarch in the Czech Republic, Ladislav Hučko, a non-Ukrainian, by blockading the Greek-Catholic cathedral.   As a result, the event was relocated to be held in a Roman Catholic church.  In 2004, Lachovicz was not re-elected.  His successor closed the Order's community in the Czech Republic, transferring the members to the monastery in Pidhirtsi, Ukraine.
caption: Demonstration outside the Lviv regional council, August 2009
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