Exhibition of Documents about the Violent Liquidation, Underground Activity, and Legalization of the UGCC

On January 24, 2010, in Kyiv, in the St. Basil the Great Church, the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University presented the exhibition “Toward the Light of Resurrection through the Thorns of Catacombs.”

KYIV — On January 24, 2010, in Kyiv, in the St. Basil the Great Church, the Institute of Church History of the Ukrainian Catholic University presented the exhibition “Toward the Light of Resurrection through the Thorns of Catacombs.”

The exhibition is devoted to the 20^th anniversary of the emergence of the UGCC from the catacombs and its official legalization. The presentation of the exhibition took place after the Divine Liturgy which began at 10:00 a.m. It was also possible to visit the exhibit after the prayer for Christian unity, which began the same day at 6:00 p.m. (An interdenominational prayer will take place as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity).

The exhibition includes materials from the institute, including memoirs of eyewitnesses and active participants of the underground, which were collected during 1992-2009, documents of the state’s archives, and pictures from private collections. In the exhibition are shown the histories of representatives of Greek Catholic clergy, monasticism, and the laity – each of which had a unique human fate. All together they are the witnesses of deep Christian faith and unshakable loyalty to the church and nation. The exhibition covers the period from 1939 to 1991 and represents the three important stages of the tragic, yet heroic, history of the UGCC of the 20^th century: the violent liquidation, underground activity, and legalization in 1989.

The creators of the project hope the materials of the photo exhibit will summarize and present the position of the whole church in the conditions of the persecution and expose the forms of resistance and underground activity of clergy and laity and their methods of struggle for the recognition of their rights.

“With this exhibition the Institute of Church History aims to express gratitude to the known and unknown martyrs and confessors of faith, who with their great deeds make it possible for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to regenerate on Ukrainian soil,” remarked Fr. Andrey Mykhaleyko, PhD, director of the Institute of Church History, for the Information Department of the UGCC.