page_title: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
section_title: Current situation
hierarchical_section_title: Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church / History / Current situation
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Święto Przemienienia Pańskiego znane jako Święto Spasa we wsi Spas na Ukrainie. English: Feast of Transfiguration known as Spas Feast Day in Spas village, Ukraine.
context_page_description: The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope and the worldwide Catholic Church. It is the second-largest particular church in the Catholic Church. It is part of the Major Archiepiscopal Churches of the Catholic Church that are not distinguished with a patriarchal title.
  The church is one of the successor churches to the acceptance of Christianity by Grand Prince Vladimir the Great of Kiev, in 988. It appeared in 1596 with the signing of the Union of Brest between the Ruthenian Orthodox Church led by Michael Rohoza and the Holy See. Following the partitions of Poland, in 1808 the eparchies of the original Ruthenian Uniate Church were split three ways between the Austrian Empire, Prussia, and the Russian Empire. Those three eparchies under Austrian jurisdiction were reorganized as the Greek Catholic Church soon after liquidation of all five eparchies that ended up in Russia. Established in 1807 the Greek Catholic Church in Austria became the only survivor of the original Uniate church of the Brest Union.
  In 1963 the church was recognized as Ukrainian through the efforts of Yosyf Slipyi.
context_section_description: National surveys conducted since 2000 show that between 5.3% and 9.4% of Ukraine's total population are of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In surveys, 18.6-21.3% of believers or religious people in Ukraine were Greek Catholic. Worldwide, the faithful now number some 6 to 10 million, forming the largest particular Catholic Church, after the majority Latin Rite Church.
  According to a 2015 survey, followers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church make up 8.1% of the total population (excluding Crimea) and form the majority in 3 oblasts:
  Lviv Oblast — 59% of the population
  Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast — 57%
  Ternopil Oblast — 52%
  Today, most Ukrainian Catholic Churches have moved away from Church Slavonic and use Ukrainian. Many churches also offer liturgies in a language of the country the Church is in, for example, German in Germany or English in Canada; however, some parishes continue to celebrate the liturgy in Slavonic even today, and services in a mix of languages are not unusual.
  In the early first decade of the 21st century, the major see of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was transferred to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The enthronement of the new head of the church Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk took place there on 27 March 2011 at the cathedral under construction on the left bank. On 18 August 2013, the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was dedicated and solemnly opened.
  On 5 July 2019, Pope Francis declared to the church's leaders during a meeting in the Vatican “I hold you in my heart, and I pray for you, dear Ukrainian brothers." He also advocated greater humanitarian aid to Ukraine and warned the Church's Bishops to show "closeness" to their "faithful." The Pope also told the Church leaders to that "fruitful" unity within the Church can be achieved through three important aspects of synodality: listening; shared responsibility; and the involvement of the laity.
caption: The Feast of the Transfiguration in Ukraine in 2017
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