12. The Church today

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with more than 6.5 million believers is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world.

The head of the UGCC is the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who succeeded Cardinal Lubomyr Husar in March 2011, after His Beatitude’s resignation was accepted by the Pope in February 2011.

During the years of 1989–2011, the UGCC held five sessions of the Patriarchal Sobor (Church council): the first was devoted to the question of new evangelization (1996), the second — the role of the laity in the life of the modern Church (1998), the third — problems in Ukrainian society, especially abortions, divorce, corruption and alcoholism (2002), the fourth — youth (2007), the fifth — monasticism (2011).

In the words of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, “Today our church, by building up its structures, step by step heads toward a patriarchate.” “And it’s only a matter of time,” he told a press conference, “when the Pope, according to his authority, will make this decision public. So I think it’s up to our faithful and our clergy to build the patriarchate, which we are doing day by day.”

The Major Archepiscopal Church in Ukraine is divided into eparchies and exarchates:

Kyiv Archeparchy, Lviv Archeparchy, Ivano-Frankivsk Archeparchy, Ternopil-Zboriv Archeparchy, Kolomyia-Chernivtsi Eparchy, Sambir-Droyobych Eparchy, Buchach Eparchy, Stryi Eparchy, Sokal-Zhovkva Eparchy, Donetsk-Kharkiv Exarchate, Odesa-Crimea Exarchate and Lutsk Exarchate.

The Mukachevo Eparchy of GCC, being formally a church sui juris and not subject to the head of the UGCC, maintains an autonomous status.