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The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

• 3317 communities
• 79 monasteries
• 1168 monks and nuns
• 1872 priests
• 2777 churches
• 305 churches are being built

Catholics of the Byzantine rite, known as Greek Catholics, are heirs of the Union of Brest of 1596, which the hierarchy of the Kyivan Metropolia established with the Church of Rome. They belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). The Twentieth century was a stormy one for this Church, and she was led through it by some of her greatest leaders.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was liquidated by Stalin's regime and forcibly "re-united" with the Russian Orthodox Church after World War Two. Regardless of the fact that it was officially forbidden and harshly persecuted, this Church preserved its hierarchical structures in the underground and diaspora, and in December 1989 it requested official legalization.

In spring of 1991 the late His Beatitude Myroslav Ivan Cardinal Lubachivskyi, the head of the Church at that time, returned from emigration to his see in Lviv. With 3317, the UGCC now has the second largest number of religious communities of the Churches in Ukraine. Major Archibishop His Beatitude Lubomyr Cardinal Husar is the present head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

For current relevant websites, see the RISU page Religion in Ukraine on the Internet