Catholicism in Ukraine
According to the Vatican, the number of Catholics in Ukraine during the last years increased by more than 100 thousand people. Although in reality, most Ukrainians who consider themselves to be believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church live in the West of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church served and serves God, people and Ukrainians. And precisely because of its universal unity with the broad Catholic world, it was able to maintain a clear moral standpoint even in Soviet times and was not destroyed.
Of course, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church recognizes the supremacy of the Pope as the visible head of the church.
Interestingly, the main temple of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kiev and it is the sanctuary of more than six million Greco-Catholics of the world. As a place of extraordinary events in the history of Ukrainian Christianity and the Greek Catholic Church, the Patriarchal Cathedral attracts thousands of pilgrims annually.
Despite the fact that the Orthodox and Catholics – all are Christians, the service in the Greek Catholic Church is really different from the Orthodox: in Greek-Catholic a significant place remains for emotional perception as well as notable rationality. However, in reality, more differences are observed in the organization of church work in general.
Orthodoxy is more strict in the observance of church regulations. They do not support modern methods of church work (for example, the organization of playgrounds) and the participation of clergymen in the activities different from their usual, even for the sake of attracting young people, giving them a good example (for example, priests as organizers and participants in sporting events).
Therefore, the Orthodox have greater practical conservatism in faith, in church life, despite the fact that the use of modern practices in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has obvious success.
