The Mukachevo Greek Catholic Diocese in the last week celebrated the 30th anniversary of its coming out from the underground. The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy was held on May 1 and gathered a large number of leaders of the diocese and representatives of the clergy, Zoryana Popovich, a RISU journalist, has reported.
There were also those who were at the first public worship service in Uzhhorod on April 28, 1989. Then, after 40 years of the underground, the first public Divine service with the bringing of the Shroud was already on the old city cemetery of Calvary. Exactly 30 years passed since the moment when the priests could already openly pray and not be afraid of consequences, here for the first time in Calvary. To take part in it, people walked tens of kilometers. Today on this place a memorial cross is mounted.
Another memorial is located on the walls of the Holy Elevation of the Cross Cathedral. Here the names of representatives of the clergy who were repressed by the Soviet authorities are listed.
At the festive Liturgy, several elderly women handed to the diocese a wooden crucifix that the priest used during the Divine Service on April 28, 1989. It will now become an exhibit of the diocesan museum.
Now people are talking about persecution, underground worship, the conduct of the sacraments, and tell the things that sound unusual for the modern year. “People were afraid, they were really afraid,” says one of the faithful, Maria Kotsak. “But still more and more people started attending the church. But it was not so scary for us to be in our church, even if we were beaten there, and stabbed with forks, and the priest was beaten – many things happened... “
Assistant Bishop Nil told us that the Soviet authorities considered the Vatican to be an enemy in those years, and since the Greek Catholic Church remained true to the Vatican, the only method of influence was its destruction. “The diocese has always been faithful to the Holy See, and the Soviet government simply could not tolerate it,” says Bishop Nil.