His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar): “The Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv has become a symbol of our unity”

The transition of the Metropolitan seat of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to Kyiv in 2005 and the construction of the Patriarchal Cathedral of  the Resurrection of Christ on the banks of the Dnipro River have become a symbol of  “our  internal unity,” believes Archbishop-Emeritus His Beatitude Lubomyr (Husar) . In the interview with the Polish Catholic Information Agency (KIA), he reminded that “We were known as the Greek-Catholic Church by the Austrians during the rule of the Hapsburgs, but we existed in all of Ukraine.”

“The history of our Church,” stated Cardinal Lubomyr (Husar) numbers already 1025 years beginning with the Baptism of Kyiv Rus.  In 1596 part of the Church joined the Brest Union.  We always continued our contacts both with the Constantinople Patriarch and with the Apostolic Sea.  On the one hand, it was our blessing, and on the other, it led to the division in the Orthodox Church.  Since then both of our churches developed separately on the territory of entire Ukraine.  Then, after the separation of Poland, the lands east of the Zbruch River became part of the Russian Empire, which attempted to liquidate our Church. This caused the transfer of our Metropolitan at that time to Lviv -- a territory of the monarchy of the Hapsburgs, wherein we could develop without impediments.

The transfer in 2005 of the seat of the UGCC Head from Lviv to Kyiv was a return to the state which existed before the division.

There is a certain historical irony in the fact that thanks to Stalin, Greek-Catholics returned to the whole territory of Ukraine.  We are not creating some sort of new structure, but we are returning in order to serve people who live in Central and Eastern Ukraine.

His Beatitude Lubomyr also emphasized: “We are not converting the Orthodox, but we are searching for our faithful. Simultaneously, we are inviting Orthodox, if they will to do so.  We are not forcibly convincing anyone to join the Greek-Catholic Church.”

On the territory of Greek-Halych Metropolitanate, stated Archbishop-Emeritus, there exist a hundred parishes, some of them not very large, numbering about fifty people.  “Yet they do exist and this cheers us,” he said.

UGCC Department of Information