[Ave Maria University, Miami, Florida] – Father Mark Morozowich delivered the Inaugural Lecture in Ukrainian Studies of Dr. George and Catherine Szczerbaniuk Lecture Series at Ave Maria University titled The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: A History of Struggle &Perseverance. In his lecture, Father Mark presented the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church inseparable from the history of Ukraine itself – rooted in the baptism of Kyivan Rus’, shaped by the Byzantine tradition, and tested repeatedly by powerful external forces. He explained how the Union of Breast, on the defining moments in the Church’s history, sought to place the Church in communion with Rome without sacrificing its own liturgy, customs, and structure, a tension that would shape its development for centuries. He then delineated many of the political turmoils the Church endured, giving particular attention to the twentieth century, when the Soviet regime sought to destroy it. Recalling the arrest of its bishops in 1945 and the 1946 Pseudo-Sobor of Lviv, Father Mark described these events as a staged liquidation rather than a true council, which drove the Church underground for decades. In the end, his lecture pointed beyond repression to survival, tracing how the Church endured in secret for decades, resurfaced in 1989, and now once again ministers under the pressure of war.
