On the Question of the Establishment and Functioning of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Structures in Crimea in 1991—2022

Abstract

The study is devoted to the analysis of the processes of formation and development, as well as the current state of the structures of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in the period from 1991 (restoration of Ukraine's independence) to 2022. The UGCC is currently one of the three largest Christian religious organizations in Ukraine. Despite the relatively small number on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, its parishes in the region play a unique role in the preservation of Ukrainian identity, starting from the end of the 20th century; therefore, the development of religious structures is an important aspect of the consolidation of the community of ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea, which is the second largest ethnic community in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The first congregation of the UGCC on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula was registered in August 1991 as part of the Kyiv-Vyshgorod Exarchate. The formation and development of the structures of the UGCC in Crimea, even under the conditions of Ukraine's independence, took place in circumstances due to organizational difficulties from authorities and public associations opposed to the activities of the UGCC. Accordingly, the main problems of the parishes were the failure to provide land plots for the construction of churches, the lack of religious buildings, and artificial obstacles to their structure. After the events of the so-called "Crimean Spring" in 2014, Ukrainians in Crimea became a discriminated ethnic community under threat of assimilation. Accordingly, the situation of the Crimean Exarchate of the UGCC changed for the worse: almost all priests and part of the parishioners were forced to leave Crimea due to pressure on the Ukrainian community of the peninsula. The parishes of the region underwent forced "re-registration" as an ‘exarchate of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine rite’, which is directly subject to the Holy See. Still, these structures continue to be under pressure in the absence of their own information resources. In addition, the religious communities of the UGCC in Crimea have the problem of a catastrophic lack of clergy and the subsequent outflow of young and middle-aged parishioners, which can cause their stagnation and a slow decline to the point of disappearance. Analytical intelligence and scientific articles devoted to the situation of the Greek-Catholic communities of Crimea are practically absent.