Main Vectors of International Activity of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
Abstract
During the 1950s and 1980s, the Eastern Catholic Church (sharing the Byzantine tradition) was maintained in countries with a Ukrainian migrant diaspora. In the 1960s, this branched and organized church was formed in the Ukrainian diaspora. It was named the Ukrainian Catholic Church (UCC). The Galician Metropolitan Department was headed by Andriy Sheptytskyi until 1944, and after that Sheptytskyi was preceded by Yosyp Slipiy, who headed it until 1984. In addition to the Major Archbishop and Metropolitan Yosyp, this church included two dioceses (in the United States and Canada), a total of 18 bishops. It had about 1 million believers and 900 priests. The largest groups of followers of the union lived in France, Yugoslavia, Great Britain, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. Today, the number of Greek Catholics in the world is more than 7 million.
The international cooperation of denominations in the field of resolving historical traumas of the past seems to be quite productive. An illustrative example was shared on June 28, 2013. Preliminary commemorations of the victims of the 70th anniversary of the Volyn massacres, representatives of the UGCC and the Roman Catholic Church of Poland signed a joint declaration. The documents condemned the violence and called on Poles and Ukrainians to apologize and spread information about the violence. This is certainly a significant step towards reconciliation between the nations.
The most obvious fact is that the churches of the Kyiv tradition—ОCU and UGCC, as well as Protestant churches (All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Churches—Pentecostals, Ukrainian Lutheran Church, German People’s Church)—are in favor of deepening the relations between Ukraine and the European Union. A transformation of Ukrainian community to a united Europe, namely in the European Union, which, in their view, is a guarantee of strengthening state sovereignty and ensuring the democratic development of countries and Ukrainian society.
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