Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church


The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris 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. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.
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.
Following the partitions of Poland, the eparchies of the Ruthenian Uniate Church 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 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.

Names

In its early years, the church was called the Ecclesia 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. 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 because they used the "Greek" or Byzantine Rite, as well as more specifically Rutheni catholici. The leader of the Church was called Metropolita Kioviensis or "Metropolitan of Kiev" and sometimes also "of Galicia and all Rus'" until 1805.
The Austrian Empire later used Griechisch-katolisch 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. 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.

Ruthenian Orthodox Church to the Union of Brest

The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was created with the Union of Brest in 1595/1596, yet its roots go back to the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. Byzantine missionaries exercised decisive influence in the area. The 9th-century mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Great Moravia had particular importance as their work allowed the spread of worship in the Old Church Slavonic language. The Byzantine-Greek influence continued, particularly with the official adoption of Byzantine rites by Prince Vladimir I of Kiev in 988 when the metropolis of Kiev within the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople was established. Later at the time of the Great Schism, the church took sides and remained Orthodox.
Following the devastating Mongol invasions and the sack of Kiev in 1240, Metropolitan Maximos moved to the town of Vladimir-on-Klyazma in 1299. In 1303, at the request of the Ruthenian kings of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople created the separate metropolis of Halych which included the western parishes of the original metropolis of Kiev. The new metropolis did not last for long, and its new metropolitan, Peter of Moscow, was consecrated as the metropolitan of Kiev, rather than the metropolitan of Halych.
Just before his death, Peter moved his episcopal see from Vladimir to Moscow. During his reign, the Metropolitanate of Lithuania was established in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while the metropolis of Halych was also re-established after his death. In 1445, the metropolitan Isidore, with his see in Moscow, joined the Council of Florence and became the papal legate for all Ruthenia and Lithuania. After Isidore suffered prosecution by the local bishops and royalty of the Grand Principality of Moscow, he was exiled from Moscow, while a council of Russian bishops appointed their own metropolitan, Jonah of Moscow, without the consent of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, leading to the independence of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1448.
For this reason, Patriarch Gregory III of Constantinople reorganized the Ruthenian Church in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Its new primates were styled "Metropolitans of Kiev, Galicia and all Ruthenia". He appointed Gregory II Bulgarian as the new Greek Catholic primate, who rejoined the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople under Dionysius I of Constantinople in 1470.

From the Union of Brest to the Partitions of Poland

This situation continued for some time, and in the intervening years what is now western and central Ukraine came under the rule of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish king Sigismund III Vasa was heavily influenced by the ideals of the Counter-Reformation and wanted to increase the Catholic presence in Ukraine. While the clergy of the Ruthenian lands were technically ruled from Constantinople, the Ruthenian Orthodox bishops were appointed by the Polish Catholic monarch, often with disastrous results. In the Eparchy of Volodymyr, for example, two different lay noblemen were both appointed as bishop by the Polish king. Both "bishops" hired mercenaries and fought a pitched battle over control of the Eparchy, before the Polish king finally stepped in and appointed one of the two candidates to an adjacent Orthodox See.
Meanwhile, the religious renewal caused by the Counter-Reformation among Latin Catholics in Poland and Lithuania drew the envy of Orthodox clergy. With the encouragement of the Society of Jesus, four bishops of the Ruthenian Church signed the Union of Brest in 1595, broke from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and reunited with the Catholic Church under the authority of the Holy See, while continuing to say the Byzantine Rite in Old Church Slavonic. The Union of Brest was also motivated by outrage over the insult to the Primacy of the See of Kiev implicit in the recent promotion of the See of Moscow to a patriarchate by Jeremias II of Constantinople. In 1596, the Ruthenian bishops finalized their agreement with the Holy See.
The union was not accepted by all the members of the Ruthenian Orthodox Church in these lands, and marked the creation of Greek Catholic Church and separate eparchies that continued to stay Orthodox among which were Lviv eparchy, Peremyshel eparchy, Mukachevo eparchy and Lutsk eparchy that at first accepted the union but later oscillated back and forth, depending on who was the Bishop.
There was an attempt to resolve the conflict between Orthodox and Greek Catholics by adopting "Articles for Pacification of Ruthenian people" in 1632. Following that, both churches existed legally in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with Metropolitans of Kyiv, one, Josyf Veliamyn Rutsky, Greek Catholic, and another, Peter Mogila, Orthodox.
Following the Union of Brest, the new Greek Catholic church was widely supported by both the Ukrainian clergy and local Christians. According to Ludvik Nemec, the creation of the Uniate church was a turning point for the development of Ukrainian national awareness – the separation from Russian-dominated Orthodoxy made the Ukrainian population more aware of the linguistic and cultural differences from Russia, and the Ukrainian identity started to sharply develop in the 16th and 17th century. Greek Catholicism became the dominating religion in Ukraine, and "the Ukrainians became almost strangers to the Russians".
At the same time, the Uniates were not treated on par with Latin Catholics in Poland-Lithuania; Greek Catholics were excluded from the Polish Senate, and bishops were to be supervised by Latin Catholic bishops. The Uniate church was neglected by Polish authorities, causing resentment towards Polish rule as well. As the result of being alienated from both Polish Latin Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy, the Greek Catholic church in Ukraine had developed its own separate, Ukrainian identity. Greek Catholic bishops of Ukraine such as Josaphat Kuntsevych are considered the precursors of Ukrainian nationalism.