Greek-Catholic and Roman Catholic Relations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire: the Problem of Latinization and Ukrainization

Abstract

Although the Greek Catholic Church was not a decisive factor in national self-determination in Galicia, it made a significant contribution to overcoming the crisis of national identity in the nineteenth century. The Eastern rite was one of the most advanced factors that distinguished Greek Catholics from Roman Catholics, Ukrainians from the Poles. Language differences were not so great as to distinguish Galician Ukrainians from Galician Poles. Both languages ​​borrowed so much from one another over centuries that became mutually comprehensible, close, that threatened the Rusyns (Ukrainians) of Galicia not only linguistic, but also ethnic assimilation. At the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most comprehensible thing was the interpretation of the Rusyn (Ukrainian) language of the Galician as a dialect of the Polish. Therefore, in the nineteenth century. an attempt was made to force the Ukrainians to switch to the Latin alphabet.