Since the political changes in Bulgaria the Holy Eucharist Sisters have once again been active in Sofia. They are a great support for the tiny Catholic Church in Bulgaria. In 1995, with the help of Aid to the Church in Need, they were able to build a small convent with a medical aid post and a day centre for the aged and needy. The outreach of their community goes well beyond the convent walls however - both in the social field and also in a spiritual sense. Already up to 100 people are coming to Mass here each Sunday from the nearby newly-built suburb of "Ovtcha Kupel" - a typical socialist-style "town without God". But because the convent chapel is far too small they have no space to sit, even lining up in the corridor outside. Bishop Proykov, the (Byzantine-rite) apostolic exarch of Sofia, and the Holy Eucharist Sisters therefore share the same desire, to build a new church within the grounds of the convent - a church big enough to hold all these people who are thirsting after God. The Liturgy is celebrated in the Byzantine rite and also draws Bulgarian Orthodox believers. Aid to the Church in Need has promised 22,500 Euros towards the cost of this new church, which will be named after the much-loved and now beatified Pope John XXIII, who was papal nuncio in Sofia for some years, prior to his election as Pope.

Photo: The place where the church will stand.