The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Takes Residence in Kyiv

On May 13 the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Cardinal Liubomyr Huzar, consecrated the construction of a new cathedral. The residence of the UGCC is to be in Kyiv. This event was preceded by the Holy Liturgy which was held in the morning at the Greek Catholic church on Prince Askold’s grave by the cardinal. In the course of ceremony his Reverence emphasized that “the center of the Church must be in the country’s center,” a Catholic Church press service representative told the Interfax-Ukraine correspondent (at present the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Center is based in Lviv — Ed.).

It was the first time that the cardinal held such a service in Kyiv after his appointment as the head of the UGCC (The Holy Synod recommended Liubomyr Huzar for this post on January 25, 2000, later the Pope sanctioned the choice of the Synod of the Bishops of the UGCC). The service was held by him together with the Exarch of Kyiv and Vyshhorod Vasyl. Papal Nuncio Nicola Eterovic and more than ten UGCC bishops from several regions of Ukraine also took part in the ceremony.

The design of the 61 meter high cathedral by Kyiv based architect Mykola Levchuk, won first prize at the exhibition of the designs for modern church buildings in the CIS countries.

During the Papal visit to Ukraine the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is going to raise a question of the restitution of church buildings previously belonging to it, but not “acutely,” as the head of the Greek Catholic Church Liubomyr Huzak declared to journalists on May 13, reports Interfax-Ukraine.

Cardinal Huzar also recalled that the UGCC turned to the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma with requests: to give the Church full exoneration, give it the status of a juridical person, and to set a mechanism for discussing and solving these problems, so that “everything would proceed in a peaceful atmosphere.”

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which appeared after the 1596 Union of Brest, was officially abolished under official Soviet pressure by the Lviv Church Council of 1946. The Church was renewed in Ukraine at the beginning of the 1990s and now boasts about 3700 parishes.