On the 70th anniversary of Lviv Pseudo-Council in 1946, the Institute of Church History will present the exhibition titled “To light of the Resurrection through the Thorns of Catacombs.” The exhibition features the history of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in underground.
The opening will take place on March 4, at 13.00, at the Art Gallery of the Ukrainian House (Khreschatyk Str. 2, 3rd floor), according to the press service of UCU. At the heart of the exhibition are the materials of the Institute of Church History, memories of witnesses and active members of the underground, which were collected during the 1992-2009, the documents from state archives, photos from private collections. The exhibition shows the life stories of members of the Greek Catholic clergy, monks, lay people, each of them having a unique human fate. Together, they are evidence of the deep Christian faith and unbending loyalty to the Church and people. Chronologically, the exhibition covers the period from 1939 to 1991 and reflects three important stages both tragic and heroic history of the Church of the twentieth century: violent liquidation, underground and legalization in 1989. The exhibition is supplemented by unique documents from the SSU State Archive. This are the material of the investigative proceedings dubbed "Reefs", a large collection of materials on Fr Havryil Kostelnyk and Serhiy Danilenko. According to the authors of the project, the photo exhibition materials should generalize and feature the situation of the whole Church on specific examples in terms of persecution, reveal forms of resistance and underground activities of the clergy and laity, methods of struggle for recognition of their rights. “With this exhibition the Institute of Church History expresses gratitude to all known and unknown martyrs and confessors of the faith, whose life exploits contributed to the fact that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church revived on Ukrainian territory updated and enriched,” told Director of the Institute of Church History Svitlana Hurkina. The exhibition “To the light of Resurrection through the Thorns of Catacombs” will last until 18 March 2016. Historical Background In the twentieth century, millions of Ukrainian were victims not only of war or armed conflicts, but also of totalitarian regimes and misanthropic ideas they promoted. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) also became a victim of deliberate persecution of religion and conscious planting of atheism. The massacre of rebellious Church, organized by the Soviet government and its repressive bodies was completed the so-called “Lviv Council” of 1946, according to the rulings of which it ceased to exist officially and “reunited” with the Russian Orthodox Church. Liquidated and banned by Stalin's regime, the UGCC started a new chapter in its history - the history of a courageous and heroic resistance. The fight of Greek Catholics for their civil rights was not only an integral part of the opposition to the totalitarian regime, but the process of democratization and Ukrainian national revival in the late 1980s.