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The Belarusan Catholic Church
Like their Ukrainian counterparts [see the Ukrainian Catholic Church], today's Belarusan Catholics originated in the Union of Brest (1595-1596). The Belarusan Greek Catholic Church was suppressed by the Russian imperial government along with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the 19th century.
After World War I, a community of about 30,000 Greek Catholics emerged in areas of Belarus that had been annexed by Poland. An Apostolic Visitator was appointed for them in 1931, and an Exarch in 1940. After World War II, when the area was absorbed by the Soviet Union, the church was again suppressed and integrated into the Russian Orthodox Church. Belarusan Catholics were brutally persecuted under communist rule.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Belarus in 1991, Belarusan Greek Catholics began to emerge once again. By early 1992 three priests and two deacons were at work and, unlike most of their Roman Catholic and Orthodox colleagues, were celebrating the liturgy in Belarusan. A survey of religious affiliation undertaken by the Belarus State University in 1992 indicated that about 100,000 Belarusans self-identified as Greek Catholic. In 1993 Archimandrite Sergiusz Gajek, M.I.C., was named Apostolic Visitator to the Greek Catholics in Belarus. At the beginning of 2005, there were 20 Greek Catholic parishes in Belarus, 13 of them registered with the authorities. There were about 3,000 faithful worshiping in these parishes, served by ten priests.
There are about 2,000 Belarusan Greek Catholics outside the country. The best organized communities are in London and Chicago, and a new parish was founded in Belgium in 2003.