Metropolitan Borys Gudziak

Borys Gudziak is a native of Syracuse, New York, born to Ukrainian immigrant parents. He received degrees from Syracuse University, the Pontifical Urban University, and the Pontifical Oriental Institute. He holds a doctorate in Slavic and Byzantine Cultural and Ecclesiastical History from Harvard University (1992). In 1992 he moved to Ukraine, where he founded the Institute of Church History in Lviv. He subsequently served as vice-rector and rector of the Lviv Theological Academy and, from 2002 to 2013, as rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU), the first Catholic university established in the former Soviet Union. In 2013, he became president of the UCU. He has taught and worked in Ukraine for more than twenty years and has published hundreds of scholarly, analytical, and journalistic works. In 2012, Gudziak was ordained a bishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and appointed to serve Ukrainian Catholics in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. In 2019, he was enthroned as Metropolitan and Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainian Catholics in the United States.

Archbishop Gudziak is Chairman-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. He is also a member of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches and the Dicastery for Communication in Rome. He holds honorary doctorates from Syracuse University (2018), Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary (2021), the University of Notre Dame (2022), the Catholic University of America (2022), Ave Maria School of Law (2023), the University of San Francisco (2023), and Seton Hall University (2023). He heads the Department of External Church Relations of the UGCC. His honours include the French Legion of Honour (2015), the Polish Jan Nowak-Jeziorański Award (2016), the Notre Dame Award (2019), the Catholic Faith Network Award of Excellence (2023), the Cross of Ivan Mazepa (2023), the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2024), the CNEWA Faith and Culture Award (2024), and the Order of Merit, First Class, of Ukraine (2025).

Gudziak serves on the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America and the Board of Directors of the Children of Heroes Charitable Foundation. He is president of the UCU Board of Trustees in Lviv and continues to be an active member of the Ukrainian Scouting Organization Plast, serving on its supervisory board in Ukraine.