The movement's seven founding self-consecrated "bishops" were formerly priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and former members of the Order of Saint Basil the Great.

[1] The movement has been described by The New York Times as anti-European Union and anti-Ukrainian as well as pro-Yanukovych and pro-Russian, as well as fervently against homosexuality which it often accuses its opponents of spreading.

[2] In 2019, the sect elected Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, as Pope, thus switching from a sedevacantist to a conclavist position.

He appointed the community's leader, Elias Dohnal, to direct the formation of the novices in the group, several men from the Order's novitiate in Poland.

The group appealed to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches for permission to establish an autonomous monastery within the territory of the Archeparchy of Prešov (Slovakia).

[5] On March 3, 2008, A. Dohnal announced to Pope Benedict XVI that he and three other Basilian Fathers had been consecrated as bishops in order to save the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) from heresy and apostasy.

In justification for the act, he wrote that the bishops of the UGCC supported influences of syncretism and occultism, approval of homosexuality, and erroneous ecumenism.

1462 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO)), inciting rebellion against the local hierarchy, including Bishop Mykhail Koltun, C.SS.R., Major Archbishop Lubomyr Cardinal Husar (violation of can.

In their declaration they professed the Catholic faith, including the primacy of the Roman Pontiff and disassociated themselves from "contemporary heresies which destroy both the Eastern and the Western Church.

"[12] On April 7, 2011, the UOGCC bishops declared the establishment of a Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate, offering to provide an episcopal authority to like-minded believers elsewhere in the world.

[21] On March 29, 2012, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published a declaration,[22] urged by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and dated February 22, 2012, concerning the main bishops of the UOGCC.

The article also stated that the UOGCC had not attracted a large number of followers, but made headlines in the local Ukrainian news media for their pro-Russian views and alleged brainwashing of vulnerable young recruits.

[2] The New York Times further claims that the Lviv-based Ekspres newspaper, reported that before the Fall of Communism, Elijah was a Soviet informer in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.

Nonetheless, on 24 June 2015, those last two were found at the Zhovkva Raion courtroom where just before the session they finally showed their passports, Czech Richard (Metodij) Spirzik and Slovak Patrick (Timofij) Sojka.

All detentions were conducted as part of criminal proceeding opened by the Shevchenkivskyi District department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine main administration against "Dohnalites".

On 25 June 2015, the chief of SBU administration in Lviv Oblast commented that during the search in convent were noticed many other illegal immigrants who should be checked by migration authorities.

The UOGCC is fervently against homosexuality which it often accuses the government of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and the European Union, of spreading.

Archbishop of Lviv Ihor Vozniak claims the UOGCC is funded by Russia to create disorder in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.