The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)

This page offers an introduction to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), so that you can better understand the tradition of worship, prayer, and spiritual life that animates St. Michael’s. The goal is to help anyone who wishes to enter into it more fully with our parish community. Here you can find essential information about the UGCC’s nature as a Church, its history, and its life around the world today.

What is the UGCC?

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church sui iuris. This means that it is an autonomous Church according to its own established Eastern, and in this case specifically Byzantine (“Greek”), traditions within the Catholic Church in communion with the Pope of Rome. There are 24 Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris, which belong to different ritual families of which the Byzantine/Greek is one, but also include for example the East Syriac, West Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic. Each is characterized by distinctive traditions in liturgy, theology, spirituality, and church law. The Eastern Catholic Churches live these traditions in full communion with the Pope of Rome.

The Head and Father of the UGCC is the Major-Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, whose cathedral is the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv, Ukraine. All the bishops of the UGCC together in synod govern the ordinary affairs of this Church within its home territory. Today there are many UGCC communities around the world, not only in Ukraine. You can learn more about the Byzantine Rite – the theology, liturgy, spirituality, and canon law that make it unique – on the “The Byzantine Rite” page of this site.

A Very Brief History of the UGCC

The year 988 marks the official embrace of Christianity by the leaders of Kyivan-Rus’, a confederation of principalities organized around Kyiv, the capital of modern-day Ukraine. Then prince, now St. Vladimir (in contemporary Ukrainian “Volodymyr”) accepted the Christian faith as it was preached, taught, and celebrated in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also called Byzantium. In this tradition Greek-language sources had pride of place and authority in matters of theology, liturgy, and monastic life. With Christianity literacy also came to Kyivan Rus’. The missionaries Sts. Cyril and Methodius had worked with Slavs in central Europe over a century before and first codified a written form for Slavic languages, thus earning the honorific name “Apostoles of the Slavs.” Their work eventually matured a little further east in Bulgaria, and from there translations of spiritual texts from Greek to Slavonic made their way to Kyivan-Rus’: the Bible, the Fathers, canon law.

When Kyivan-Rus’ embraced Christian faith, the Catholic Church had not yet suffered the wound of schism between Greeks and Latins. To call oneself “orthodox” or “catholic” was not a confessional name, but to profess the faith handed on by the Apostles, whether in Latin or Greek. Kyivan-Rus’ had always been a place where some Latin Rite Christians lived, even as the local population embraced the Greek tradition. The Kyivan Church soon produced its own martyrs (the prince brothers Borys and Hlib) and monastic saints (Theodore and Anthony of the Kyivan Caves Monastery).

Later, after some time, the effects of the “Great Schism” between Latins and Greeks would also reach the lands of Kyivan-Rus’. Although “catholic” and “orthodox” were still not confessional terms, perceptions of the differences between Latin and Greek theology and practice would sharpen. Even still, the initial announcement of the Union of Florence between the Latins and Greeks (1439) was greeted warmly in Kyivan and other Ruthenian lands. “Ruthenian” was the name used at that time for Byzantine Christians who traced their Christian faith to Kyivan-Rus’ but were not part of Muscovy. It can be found in some of our historical texts. The Union of Florence, however, would not persist.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, a number of bishops from the Kyivan Metropolitanate (large ecclesiastical province) would seek renewal for their local churches through official reunion with Rome in the midst of a complex situation. This movement was officially sealed with the Union of Brest (1596), in which the bishops were brought into communion with the Pope of Rome on terms of respect for their ancient and venerable liturgical and spiritual traditions. (For this reason, Eastern Catholics were sometimes called “Uniates,” although this term is now considered one of disrespect.) In the political and cultural ebbs and flows of the following centuries, Ukrainian Greek Catholics strove to live this reality of communion with Rome as Byzantine Christians.

The twentieth century was a decisive time for the UGCC in many ways. Persecution, outlawing, and even co-called “liquidation” of the UGCC was enacted by the Soviet government. From 1946-1989 the UGCC was the largest illegal religious body in the world. The heroic witness of many during that time – for fidelity to Christian teaching or to the See of Rome – garnered the UGCC many martyrs and blessed. These recent heroic witnesses, often called the “new martyrs,” are a treasure in the UGCC as examples in the universal call to holiness. In other countries, through immigrant communities that had left Ukrainian lands in different waves starting in the late nineteenth century through the post-World War II period, the UGCC remained alive, preserving its faith and traditions.

Although the UGCC was “illegal” under Soviet captivity during the Second Vatican Council, the council’s teachings would also have a significant positive and renewing effect upon it after its legalization and emergence “from the catacombs.” Vatican II taught an ecclesiology apt to accommodate the legitimate variety of ancient traditions and rites in the Church (Lumen gentium). It also insisted that the Eastern Catholic Churches enjoyed the same dignity as the Latin Church and that they should recover their own ancient venerable traditions, which over the centuries had in some ways been assimilated to more Latin practices (Orientalium ecclesiarum). Its teaching on religious freedom in the social and civil spheres also played no small role in opposing the anti-religious actions of communist regimes (Dignitas humanae).

When the UGCC was legalized again in 1989, it began to grow. The return of the Church’s head bishop to Ukraine from de facto exile in the United States was a momentous occasion. The process of renewal and growth has been continuing since. The UGCC enjoys significant moral authority in contemporary Ukraine, especially as a body that suffered but still resisted communist abuses from the perspective of faith. To it belongs the only Catholic university founded on post-Soviet territory, the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv, which is also a major force in the intellectual life of Ukraine and the formation of its future generations. With eparchies (dioceses) now spread around the world on many continents, the UGCC lives a period of rediscovery of its own ancient traditions in communion with the See of Rome, while collaborating in the Church’s mission of a New Evangelization everywhere it ministers.

Basic Facts and Statistics of the UGCC Today

The UGCC today …

counts about 5 million faithful.
lives and ministers on 5 continents (Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Australia).
has 11 eparchies (dioceses) and 5 exarchates (more limited pre-eparchial ecclesial structures, usually in mission or new territories) in Ukraine.
has 19 eparchies and 2 exarchates outside Ukraine.
has 4 eparchies in the United States (the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, PA, and the Eparchies of Stamford, CT; Parma, OH; Chicago, IL).
has 52 bishops, of whom 8 are archbishops governing a metropolitan see.
has 1 cardinal.

Useful Links for the UGCC

UGCC Mainpage: https://ugcc.ua/en/
Philadelphia Metropolitan Archeparchy: https://ukrcatholic.org/
Chicago Eparchy of St. Nicholas: https://chicagougcc.org/en/