Odesa Catholics and Protestants Indignant At Policy of New State Authorities

During a round table on the diversity of denominations in Odesa, a priest of Odesa-Simferopol Eparchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, Viacheslav Kovalskyi stated that there have been no problems for the Church until recently. So reported Odesa News.

“There is a territory problem. For twenty years, we have not been able to rent or obtain the right of ownership to the land plot where our church, the cathedral, which historically belongs to the Catholic community, is located,” said the priest. He also noted that this is not the only problem.

“For unknown reasons, we cannot freely proclaim our faith. On certain holidays, we used to conduct processions round our block but this year, the city council prohibited to do it,” stated Kovalskyi.

According to him, on the coming Sunday, holy relics will be brought to the cathedral, a great number of parishioners will come as well as foreign visitors, but the city council did not allow to carry the relics round the block during a religious procession according to the religious norms.

In addition, during the round table, the head of the Spiritual Council of Christians of Odesa Region, Presbieter Valerii Babykin stated that the present municipal authorities destroyed the dialogue between the denominations which took many years to build.

“The policy of the present mayor looks destructive. The dialogue, which took years to build, has been interrupted. Odesa is doomed to inter-ethnic and interdenominational dialogue. Odesa was founded by Catholics and Lutherans. To establish the dialogue is wisdom. Last Sunday, signatures of people who are ready to defend their rights were gathered in the church,” said the minister.

According to Babykin, unlike the municipal authorities, last July, the governor of Odesa Region, Eduard Matviichuk organized a meeting of representatives of all the denominations where the policy course of tolerance and  promotion of all religions was proclaimed.