Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said that his Eastern Catholic church is in reality a patriarchate, even if the Pope has not declared it a patriarchate.
A patriarchate “is a certain form of ecclesial life where a number of metropolitans, each with their own metropolitanates and structures, are led by the head of the Church,” the Major Archbishop said in a television interview, as he noted that the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church meets this standard.
“We have a functioning, developing, thriving patriarchate that is awaiting its universal recognition,” he added, acknowledging that the three decades that have passed since the post-Soviet reemergence of the church is a short time to achieve the status of patriarchate. “I think that the issue of recognition is a matter of time.”
Six of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches—the Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, Maronite, Melkite, and Syriac Catholic churches—are led by patriarchs. The two largest—the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Church—are led by major archbishops.