Russian Greek Catholic Church

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The Russian Greek Catholic Church^[a] or Russian Byzantine Catholic Church^[b][1] is a sui iuris ("autonomous") Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic particular church that is part of the worldwide Catholic Church.^[2] Historically, it represents both a movement away from the control of the Church by the State and towards the reunion of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church. It is in full communion with and subject to the authority of the Pope of Rome as defined by Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

Russian Catholics historically had their own episcopal hierarchy in the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia and the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin, China. In 1907, Pope Pius X appointed Ukrainian Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, the Archbishop of Lviv, to be responsible for supporting Russian Catholics due to the precarious position of their Church within Russia. He continued in this role through World War II. Leonid Feodorov was the first Russian Catholic Exarch of Russia, and was imprisoned by the Soviets for over decade, before dying in 1935. In 1939 Sheptytsky appointed his brother Klymentiy Sheptytsky as Exarch, who later died in a Soviet prison in 1951. Since the 1950s both Russian Catholic exarchates have been vacant, though they are listed as extant in the Annuario Pontificio.

In 1928, Pope Pius XI founded the Collegium Russicum, whose graduates have included Walter Ciszek, Pietro Leoni, and Theodore Romzha, as a major seminary to train their clergy.^[3] The Russian Greek Catholic Church is currently led by Bishop Joseph Werth as its ordinary,^[4] who was appointed in 2004.

As of 2019^[update], there were around 3,000 members of the church. An exarchate was established in 1917, and Soviet repression meant that Eastern Catholics went underground. Their outstanding figure, Mother Catherine Abrikosova, was subjected to a Stalinist-era show trial and spent more than 10 years in solitary confinement before her death in 1936. The position of Eastern Catholics in Russia – as opposed to that of Poles or Lithuanians in the Latin Church – is still tenuous, with little organisation in place. Their existence remains a flashpoint in Rome's relations with the Russian Orthodox, who are intensely suspicious of Catholic activity in Russia.^[5]

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