Metropolitan Borys Participates in the Permanent Synod Meetings in Rome

May 10, 2025

On May 6–9, the 12th (83rd) session of the Permanent Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church took place at the Pontifical Ukrainian College of Saint Josaphat in Rome.

The sessions were chaired by His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC. Bishop Andriy Khimyak, Auxiliary Bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, served as Secretary of the Synod.

Participants included Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Metropolitan of Philadelphia; Bishop Yosafat Moschych of the Chernivtsi Eparchy; Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh, Apostolic Exarch for Ukrainians of the Byzantine Rite in Germany and Scandinavia; and Bishop Mykhailo Bubniy, Exarch of Odesa.

The main focus of the meetings was the preparation for the 2025 Synod of Bishops of the UGCC, scheduled to take place in early July in Rome. The central theme will be family pastoral care in the context of war.

Bishop Arkadiy Trochanovskyi, Head of the Patriarchal Commission for the Laity and Family and Bishop of Olsztyn-Gdańsk, presented a report on the work of the Commission. Bishop Stepan Sus, Head of the Pastoral and Migration Department of the UGCC, reported on the department’s activities over the past year. The department currently serves clergy and faithful in 13 countries across Southern, Northern, and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East.

Bishop Bohdan Danylo, Head of the Patriarchal Commission for the Clergy, shared the outcomes of the Commission’s meeting held in October 2024. His presentation highlighted vocations ministry, seminarian accompaniment on the path to priesthood, and the spiritual, psychological, and overall well-being of UGCC clergy.

One of the special guests at the Synod meeting was Bishop Dionisio Lachovicz, retired Apostolic Visitor and Exarch of the Apostolic Exarchate in Italy. During the meeting, His Beatitude Sviatoslav and the Synod members expressed their gratitude to Bishop Dionisio for his devoted and fruitful pastoral service to Ukrainian faithful in Italy and presented him with an icon of the Most Holy Mother of God.

While in Rome, the bishops of the Permanent Synod also visited the General House of the Basilian Order and the Generalate of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate.