Ukraine’s Supreme Rada has ruled to designate October 25, 2016 as the day of commemoration of the 70th anniversary of elimination of the Armenian Catholic Church of Western Ukraine, Interfax reports.
According to the source, the bill was backed by 240 national deputies at a parliamentary sitting today.
The Armenian Catholic Church of Ukraine – one of the Eastern Catholic Churches – was established as a result of the union of part of the Armenians with the Roman Apostolic See in 1742. The Churches uses the Armenian Rite during liturgies.
In the first half of the 20th century there were approximately 5,500 Armenian Catholics in Galicia. They had 9 churches and 16 chapels. The archeparchy included three deaneries: Lviv (parishes in Lviv, Berzhany and Lutsk), Stanislaviv (parishes in Stanislaviv, Lysts and Tysmenytsia), and Kuty (parishes in Kuty, Horodenka and Sniatyn).
The deanery of Lviv existed until the end of World War II and was eliminated by the Soviet authorities.
Following Ukrainian independence, the Armenian Catholic Church has been gradually reviving, with the first community registering in 1991 in Lviv.