Some 50 Catholics gathered in Odessa on February 17, near the building of Odessa Regional State Administration to announce their demands. According to the priest Yuri Nagornyy, rector of the Roman Catholic parish in Suvorov district, there have been no responses to repeated appeal to regional leaders. Meanwhile, the Catholics of Odessa are concerned about the provision of return of religious property under which they can claim for the property, which had become subordinated to the state during the Soviet era, Informer.od.ua reports.
Now this is the case of a building with an area of 3000 m2 located at the address: Bunin street 23 - former seminary, which was closed in the 20's of last century. Now the building of the Institute of Communications is located there. According to representatives of the Catholic community in Odessa these premises can be privatized soon, and they will lose the chance of their return. Meanwhile, said rector of the Church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there has been no response to repeated appeals to both the city and the regional government, due to which Catholics Odessa held this action to attract attention of the authorities and the public to problems of the community, which has a long history as there were many Catholics, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans and Poles among the city founders.
If the premises are granted to the Catholics of Odessa, where they plan to perform educational activities, in particular to establish a place for gathering young people, or children, or teach seminarians.