Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

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Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Latin Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Ucrainae ,
Ukrainian Українська греко-католицька церква Ukrains'ka hreko-katolyts'ka tserkva
Basic data
Jurisdiction status Grand Archbishop Church
rite Byzantine
Liturgical language Ukrainian , Church Slavonic
calendar Julian calendar
Establishment date 1990
Seat Kiev
Hierarch Grand Archbishop of Kiev and Galicia Svyatoslav Shevchuk
statistics
Jurisdictions 32
Believers 4,346,000
Bishops 50
Parishes 3987
Diocesan priest 2941
Religious priest 394
Permanent deacons 102
Friars 757
Religious sisters 1436
Stand 2013
Template: Infobox rite church / maintenance / picture is missing

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church ( Ukrainian Українська греко-католицька церква ; also Ukrainian Catholic Church according to the Byzantine Rite or Kyiv Catholic Church ) is a part of the Roman Catholic Church . It is subject to their jurisdiction , but follows the Byzantine rite in liturgy and spiritual practice. It goes back to the church union of Brest in 1596.

It includes around 4.3 million believers in the Ukraine as well as Poland , the United States , Canada , South America, Australia and Western Europe . This makes it the largest of the Eastern Churches united with Rome . The current head of the church has been Grand Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk since 2011 . The seat of the church is in the Resurrection Cathedral in Kiev .

About 6% of Ukrainians belong to the Greek Catholic Church, with the proportion in western Ukraine being significantly higher than in other parts of the country. In the historical region of Galicia (oblasts of Lviv , Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil ) the Greek Catholic Church is even the largest religious community. In most of the oblasts in central and eastern Ukraine, however, they make up less than 1% of the population.

history

Poland-Lithuania

The small wooden church and bell tower from the 17th century in the village of Selez in western Ukraine are architecturally typical of the area
Greek Catholic Dioceses in Poland-Lithuania, 1772

In 1596, six Ruthenian Orthodox bishops signed the Union of Brest with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland-Lithuania . They submitted to the jurisdiction and structures of the Roman Catholic Church, but retained the Byzantine rite in the liturgy and some Orthodox traditions (Julian calendar and others). The chief was the Metropolitan of Kiev , who mostly resided in Vilnius.

The union was opposed by most of the rest of the Orthodox clergy. The Przemyśl and Lwów eparchies initially remained Orthodox. In the remaining eparchies, almost all churches and monasteries were placed under the Uniate Church in the next few years, sometimes by force.

An Orthodox metropolitan was reinstated in Kiev in 1620, but only under the protection of the Cossacks. Since 1648 this area was no longer part of Poland-Lithuania. The United Church was dissolved there. In the rest of Poland-Lithuania the United Church prevailed almost completely by the end of the 17th century.

Russian Empire

After the partition of Poland in 1772, large parts of the Ruthenian territories came under the Russian Empire. In the 19th century, the United structures were transferred to the Orthodox Church there.

Galicia

The united church was able to continue unaffected in the Austrian Galicia (1772-1918). With the incorporation into the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939), however, the believers in western Ukraine experienced an attempt at Polonization . Archbishop Andrei Sheptytskyi was placed under house arrest and around 1,000 priests were interned. The church developed into one of the main pillars of the Ukrainian national movement in the following years .

Ukrainian SSR

After the Second World War , the Galician territories were annexed to the Ukrainian SSR . The United Church was forcibly united with the Orthodox Church by Soviet authorities; Priests and religious were persecuted and murdered. Hundreds of thousands of believers were persecuted. All bishops were arrested and only the Archbishop of Lviv Jossyf Slipyj was released from prison in 1963. He went into exile in Rome . After his death in 1984 a major archbishop was appointed again.

Established in 1990

On December 1, 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II met in Rome and concluded an agreement that the UGCC officially approved. The academy in Lviv, closed at the time by the Soviets, was reopened in 1994. In 2002 this theological training center was granted the status of a Catholic university as the first and so far only in the territory of the former USSR.

Structures

Chiefs

The St. George's Cathedral ( Sobor sw. Jura ) in Lviv in the 18th and 19th centuries, the mother church of the Greek Catholic Church in Galicia.

From the Union until around 1800, the head of the United Church bore the title of Metropolitan of Kiev . He was elected from among the bishops and carried the title in addition to his episcopal title and led the particular church from his diocese . In the 19th century the previous title was given up and the Bishop of Lemberg was raised to the rank of Metropolitan. From now on the head of the particular church resided permanently in Lemberg. The Metropolitan Jossyf Slipyj , elected in 1944 , continued to bear the title of Metropolitan and, since 1975, Grand Archbishop of Lviv , although he resided in Rome .

His second successor, Cardinal Lyubomyr Husar , moved the seat of the Grand Archbishop to the Ukrainian capital Kiev in 2005 and has since held the title of Grand Archbishop of Kiev and Halych . The major archbishop is commemorated in the liturgy with the desired but unofficial title of patriarch. Lviv is still the seat of its own archbishop.

Dioceses

The Church includes 30 dioceses in Ukraine and several abroad.

Ukraine

Ore parishes:

  1. Grand Archbishopric of Kiev-Halytsch : Archbishopric Exarchate Kharkiv , Archbishopric Exarchate Donetsk , Archbishopric Exarchate Lutsk , Archbishopric Exarchate Crimea , Archbishopric Exarchate Odessa
  2. Kiev Archeparchy
  3. Archeparchy of Lemberg : Eparchy Sambir-Drohobych , Eparchy Sokal-Schowkwa , Eparchy Stryj
  4. Archeparchy Ternopil-Sboriw : Eparchy Butschatsch , Eparchy Kamyanets-Podilskyj
  5. Archeparchy Ivano-Frankivsk : Eparchy Kolomyia , Eparchy Chernivtsi

Argentina

  1. on the ecclesiastical province of Buenos Aires : Eparchy Buenos Aires

Australia

  1. on the ecclesiastical province of Melbourne : Eparchy Melbourne

Brazil

  1. Archeparchy of Curitiba : Eparchy of Prudentopolis

Germany

  1. Immediate: Apostolic Exarchate Germany and Scandinavia

France

  1. Paris Eparchy

United Kingdom

  1. Eparchy of London

Italy

  1. Apostolic Exarchate Italy

Canada

  1. Archeparchy Winnipeg : Eparchy Edmonton , eparchy New Westminster , eparchy Saskatoon , eparchy Toronto

Poland

  1. Archeparchy Przemyśl-Warsaw : Eparchy Breslau-Danzig

Austria

  1. Immediate: Ordinariate for the Byzantine believers in Austria (together with other Greek Catholic churches)

United States

  1. Archeparchy Philadelphia : Eparchy Parma , eparchy Chicago , eparchy Stamford

Structures in the German-speaking area

The exarchy for Catholic Ukrainians of the Byzantine rite in Germany and Scandinavia has existed since 1959 . In Austria, the Ukrainian Catholics who belong to the Byzantine Rite are cared for by the Ordinariate for Byzantine Believers in Austria , which is subordinate to the Archbishop of Vienna , and the Greek Catholic Central Parish St. Barbara . There are five municipalities, in Vienna , Linz , Salzburg , Graz and Innsbruck .

Church life

A Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Bielefeld

The liturgy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGKK) is celebrated according to the Byzantine rite . The language in the service is Ukrainian, not Church Slavonic . The parish clergy can marry before consecration. In the UGKK there is the Order of the Basilian of St. Josaphat and that of the Basilian Sisters of St. Basil the Great . In Brazil, the associated church Instituto Secular the Catequistas do Sagrado Coração de Jesus ( Secular Institute ) home.

Until 1946, the UGKK was the largest group of Christians in western Ukraine in absolute terms. Since then, the number of Orthodox has grown considerably, with inner-Orthodox tensions and ideological and church-organizational divisions between Ukrainian Orthodox loyal to Moscow and the national church-minded Ukrainian Orthodox increasing since Ukrainian independence and also determining the difficult relationship with the UGKK. In Galicia in 1999 there were over 189 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOK, in the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate), 798 parishes of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOK) and 197 parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate (UOK-PK). The latter two, which are not canonical, attempt to balance this out by emphasizing the ideas of national rebirth and state building. The normalization of the relations between the UGKK and the canonical UOK as well as the respect on the part of the UGKK for the canonical decisions of the general orthodoxy with regard to the two other Orthodox churches in Ukraine are assigned a central importance for the church peace in the country.

See also

literature

  • Hans-Christian Maner and Norbert Spannenberger (eds.): Confessional identity and nation building. The Greek Catholic Churches in East Central and Southeast Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries . (= Research on the history and culture of Eastern Central Europe. 25). Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 3-515-09024-X
  • John-Paul Himka: Religion and Nationality in Western Ukraine: The Greek Catholic Church and the Ruthenian National Movement in Galicia, 1867-1900 . McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, Montreal 1999. ISBN 0-7735-1812-6
  • Oleh Turij: The religious life and the interdenominational relations in the independent Ukraine . Institute for Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv (Lemberg) 2007
  • Gabriel Adriányi: History of the Church of Eastern Europe in the 20th Century . Schöningh, Paderborn 1992.

Web links

Commons : Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Eastern Catholic Churches 2013. Catholic Near East Welfare Association, accessed January 21, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Vatican Radio : Ukraine / Vatican: Shevchuk new head ( Memento of December 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , rv / kipa March 25, 2011
  3. ↑ Ihor Harasim: The Union of Brest. Requirements and motives for their creation. In: International Research Discussion of the Pro Oriente Foundation on the Brest Union , ed. v. Hans Marte. (= Eastern Christianity. NF 54). Würzburg 2004. ISBN 3-7613-0209-6 , pp. 11-38.
  4. ^ Gabriel Adriányi: History of the Church of Eastern Europe in the 20th Century . Schöningh, Paderborn 1992, p. 47 .
  5. ^ Katrin Boeckh: Stalinism in Ukraine: the reconstruction of the Soviet system after the Second World War . Harrassowitz-Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3447055383 (habilitation); Pp. 25, 70, 102, 478ff.
  6. ↑ Svitlana Hurkina: The process of legalizing the UGKK and the independence of Ukraine , in: Bernd Florath (ed.): The year of the revolution 1989. The democratic revolution in Eastern Europe as a transnational caesura (analyzes and documents of the BStU) , V&R 2011, p. 181 ( online ).
  7. ^ Johannes Oeldemann: Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church . In: Wolfgang Thönissen (Hrsg.): Lexicon of ecumenism and denominational studies . On behalf of the Johann Adam Möhler Institute for Ecumenism. Herder. Freiburg in Breisgau. 2007. ISBN 978-3-451-29500-3 . Pp. 1380-1382.
  8. ↑ Thomas Bremer: The Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine Today: Ideological Obstacles to Dialogue with Orthodoxy at owep.de, accessed on February 17, 2015.