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As the Ukrainian Catholic Church continues to form Catholics more than four years after the country was first invaded by Russia, there are signs that Pope Leo may be considering a long-awaited change of status for the second-largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world.

The change — if it were to happen — would see the leader of the Church elevated to the status of a patriarch, highlighting the historical and contemporary importance of the the 4.5 million member Church, and is now headed by a “major archbishop” rather than a patriarch.

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Since his 2025 election, Leo has made some moves to emphasize his support for beleaguered Ukrainian Catholics enduring the hardship of long-standing warfare in their country. The most recent move was Leo’s dispatch of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to Ukraine last week, to continue the peace mission Pope Francis entrusted to him in May 2023.

The war itself has claimed almost 500,000 lives, left millions displaced or homeless, and become Europe’s deadliest conflict since the peace of 1945. Peace seems a distant prospect, with negotiations now at a standstill

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