On September 8, 2012, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, former State Secretary of the Vatican Angelo Sodano visited a Greek Catholic church in Karaganda during his trip to Kazakhstan to attend the ceremony of consecration of a new Roman Catholic cathedral in the town of miners as the pope’s legate.
According to the press service of the UGCC in Kazakhstan, the visitor was met in the church by a large Greek Catholic community led by the Apostolic Delegate for Greek Catholics in Kazakhstan and Middle Asia, Fr. Vasyl Hovera.
Fr. Vasyl said that the church of the UGCC in Karaganda is a symbol of the resurrection of the Greek Catholic Church, which spent 43 years in the underground and then emerged from the underground into religious freedom. In 2005, the church was consecrated by Cardinal Ignatius Musa Daud, Prefect of the Congregation of the Eastern Churches.
Cardinal Sodano expressed satisfaction with the fact that many children and young people gathered in the church and noted that it gives hope for the future. He also mentioned the courage and faithfulness of the Greek Catholic martyrs and promised to pass to the pope the greetings and prayers of the Greek Catholics of Karaganda.