Aid to the Church in Need: Ukraine: legal victory for Catholics in Dnepropetrowsk

Ukraine: legal victory for Catholics in Dnepropetrowsk

Posted by ACN News on 12/9/2009, 9:07 am
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ACN News, Friday, 11th September 2009 – Ukraine

Ukraine: legal victory for Catholics in Dnepropetrowsk

Illegally expropriated church building is finally returned to the Catholic Church after years long legal battle.

By Eva-Maria Kolmann

After a legal struggle lasting over a decade, the church of Saint Joseph in the city of Dnepropetrowsk in eastern Ukraine has finally been returned to the ownership of the Latin-rite Catholic Church. The building was solemnly reconsecrated at the end of August, according to information given recently to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) by Franciscan Capuchin priest, Fr Jerzy Zielinski.

This church, which was confiscated and closed down in 1949 by the communists, was more recently illegally sold on – in 1998, after the political changes – by the state authorities to a private company and has since then changed ownership several times. In July 2007 Catholics who had gathered to pray inside the church, among them elderly women, were physically attacked by security staff hired by the new "owner". And subsequently again, during the ongoing legal proceedings, members of the parish were threatened with violence – most recently just shortly before the re-consecration ceremony and after the legal judgement restoring ownership of the building to the Catholic Church had already come into force. Ever since these violent attacks on parishioners praying in the church two years ago, the Catholic faithful of the parish have gathered every day in front of the locked church building, praying earnestly for the return of the church.

(The ruined state of the building when it was handed back to the Church)

Following recent threats during August, the parish priest asked the authorities to provide police protection. Additionally, the Catholic faithful have initiated a round-the-clock guard on the church, Father Jerzy Zielinski told ACN, adding, "From early morning until late at night the parishioners have been working to clear away the rubble and make the church ready for the re-consecration ceremony. They have been camping in tents and watching over the church. Even to this day there are always a few people who stay behind in the church and keep watch".

The dedication ceremony of St Joseph’s Church was attended by bishops, priests and faithful from all over Ukraine. It began with a solemn procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Dnepropetrowsk. Commenting to ACN, Father Zielinski remarked that it was profoundly "symbolic" that "Our Lord Jesus Christ was being carried aloft through streets named after Marx, Lenin and so forth". Following the procession, the church was formally re-consecrated during a solemn Holy Mass, led by Bishop Marian Buczek of the diocese of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhya.

With this event the Catholic Church in Dnepropetrowsk – the third largest city in Ukraine with over a million inhabitants – was in fact marking a number of important historical milestones. Catholics have been living in the city for 230 years and the first Catholic church was built there exactly 130 years ago. It was 60 years ago that the church of Saint Joseph was confiscated by the communists, and it is now 10 years since the Franciscan Capuchin Fathers have once more been working in the parish. And this year the Capuchin Fathers themselves are celebrating the 300th anniversary of their ministry in the territory that is now Ukraine.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.
While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.
For further information please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: http://www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org