About | St. John's Ukrainian

About Us

Welcome!

Welcome to St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church! Everyone is welcome. The Roman
Catholic Church is not just for Romans, and the Ukrainian Catholic Church is not just for
Ukrainians. All our brothers and sisters, from any heritage or confession, are welcome to
worship with us or just come by to meet us. We would love to have you join us for worship
and fellowship! Our Divine Liturgy fulfills Sunday or Holy Day Mass obligations for all Catholics.

Part of the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy
The Ukrainian Catholic Church, also known as the “Ukrainian Greek Catholic (or Greco-Catholic) Church,” has its own synod of bishops, led by His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) in Kyiv, Ukraine. St. John the Baptist parish is under Bishop Benedict (Aleksiychuk) and part of the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago. (“Eparchy” is another name for “diocese.”)

History
In 988, Byzantine Christianity became the faith of the people of Ukraine (at the time called “Kyiv Rus’”) thanks to Prince St. Volodymyr, the ruler, and the affirmation of the people. Andrew the Apostle is said to have traveled to what is today Kyiv, blessed it,erected a cross, and foretold that a great Christian city would be there. Beginning in 1054, the communion of the Christian churches throughout the world began to suffer due to a Great Schism. In the fifteenth century, the Council of Florence negotiated an understanding of union between Christian Churches, which the Metropolitan of Kyiv and all Rus' at the time sincerely supported. The reunion was temporary.The bishops of our church, however, formally settled their communion with Rome at the Union of Brest- Lуtovsk (1596).

In Communion with Other Catholic Churches
The Ukrainian Catholic Church (the largest Eastern Catholic church) still uses the Byzantine rite and preserves the integrity of her faith traditions in full and visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church and the twenty-two other Eastern Catholic Churches, faithful to the magisterium and Holy Father. As our patriarchal leader His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk stated, “We are an Orthodox Church, with Orthodox theology, liturgy, spirituality, and canonical tradition that chooses to manifest this Orthodoxy in the spirit of the first Christian millennium, in communion with Rome.”

A Persecuted Church
After the Soviet Union occupied Ukraine in 1939, the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic was suppressed, and the clergy were imprisoned or killed. This made the Greco-Catholic Church in Ukrainian the largest body of persecuted Christians in the world. Ukrainian Catholics living in countries outside of Ukraine, continued to grow faith communities, build churches, and flourish. In 1989, the Church in Ukraine came out of the underground, and in December, the Soviet government gave the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church legal status. In 1991, Ukraine regained its independence and sovereignty.