The modern status

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is the biggest Eastern Catholic Church in the world. It numbers more than 5.5 million faithful.

The UGCC is headed by the Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, His Beatitude Lubomyr.

From 1989 to 2008, sixteen Synods of Bishops and four sessions of the Patriarchal Council of the UGCC were held: the first one was dedicated to problems of the new evangelization (1996), the second to the role of the laity in the life of the modern Church (1998), the third to problems in Ukrainian society, in particular to the problems of abortion, divorce, corruption and alcoholism (2002), and the fourth to youth (2007).

Territory

After exiting from the underground, in the period from 1989 to 1992 the Greek-Catholics of Ukraine belonged to three eparchies: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Mukachiv. At the Synod of Bishops which took place in Lviv on May 16-31, 1992, a new territorial administration was appointed according to which the amount of eparchies was increased to four and they were: Ternopil’, Zboriv, Sambir-Drohobych, and Kolomyja-Chernivtsi. The Exarchate of Kyiv and Vyshhorod, which took territories from Halychyna, Transcarpathia, and Bukovyna, had a separate status.

According to the decision of the Synod of Bishops which took place in Buchach in August 2000, two new eparchies were created, Stryj and Sokal', and Ternopil’ and Zboriv were reorganized and the Ternopil'-Zboriv and Buchach eparchies were created. As of November 2000 all of Ukraine belongs to the jurisdiction of the Major Archbishop and the Synod of Bishops.

In February 2002 the creation of the Donets’k-Kharkiv Exarchate was proclaimed. On July 28, 2003, the creation of the Odesa-Crimea Exarchate was proclaimed. On August 21, 2005, the transfer of the See of the Head of the UGCC from Lviv to Kyiv was proclaimed. On January 15, 2008, the creation of the Luts’k Exarchate was proclaimed.

The Major Archbishopric in Ukraine is composed of the following eparchies and exarchates:

• Kyiv Archeparchy, which is headed by the Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar);
• Lviv Archeparchy, which is headed by Archbishop Ihor (Voznyak);
• Ivano-Frankivs’k Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Volodymyr (Vijtyshyn);
• Kolomyja and Chernivtsi Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Mykola (Simkajlo);
• Sambir and Drohobych Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Yulian (Voronovs’kyj);
• Ternopil’ and Zboriv Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Vasyl (Semeniuk);
• Buchach Eparchy - Apostolic administrator of the Buchach Eparchy, Fr. Dmytro (Hryhorak);
• Stryj Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Yulian (Gbur);
• Sokal’ and Zhovkva Eparchy - Eparch Bishop Mikhail (Koltun);
• Donets’k and Kharkiv Exarchate - Exarch Bishop Stepan (Meniok);
• Odesa and Crimea Exarchate - Exarch Bishop Vasyl (Ivasiuk);
• Luts’k Exarchate - Exarch Bishop Josaphat (Hovera).

The Mukachiv Eparchy of the GCC, which canonically is a separate Church sui juris and not under the jurisdiction of the Head of the UGCC, maintains an autonomous status. The Mukachiv Eparchy with its See in Uzhhorod is headed by Bishop Milan (Sasik).

Included in the Major Archbishopic from the outside the limits of Ukraine:

In Poland, the Przemysl and Warsaw Greek-Catholic Metropolitanate, which numbers more than 100 parishes. The amount of faithful is more than 300 000. The Eparchy of Wroclaw and Gdansk is also part of the Major Archbishopric.

In Western Europe there are three apostolic exarchates for Ukrainian Greek-Catholics: in Germany, France, and Great Britain.

In North America there are two Greek-Catholic Metropolitanates:

• In the USA – the Philadelphia Metropolitanate, which consists of four eparchies: in Philadelphia, Parma, Chicago and Stamford;
• In Canada – the Winnipeg Metropolitanate, which consists of five eparchies: in Winnipeg, Edmonton, New Westminster, Saskatoon and Toronto.

In addition, there are eparchies of the UGCC in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Curitiba (Brazil), and Melbourne (Australia). The Ukrainian Greek-Catholics also have a Vicariate in Romania, communities in Lithuania (Vilnius), Latvia (Riga, Daugavpils, and Rezekne), Estonia (Tallinn), Moldova (Chisinau), Austria, Paraguay, Venezuela, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Link: http://www.ugcc.org.ua/5.0.html (ukr)