Sevastopol Deputies Refuse to Give Back Church Building to Roman Catholics
Only two deputies (who are not members of any factions) of the 68 deputies of the City Council of the Crimean city of Sevastopol present at the session on 13 September voted for the return of the former Polish Catholic Church of St. Clement to the community of the Roman Catholic Church. For a long time, a children’s cinema Friendship was located in the building which is in the communal ownership. Today, it is empty and neglected.
According to New Sevastopol, the following deputies voted against the transfer: 11 representatives of the Party of Regions (31 representatives of the party did not vote), 7 representatives of the “Russian Block,” 7 Communists (1 Communist abstained), 3 representatives of Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and 2 representatives of the People’s Party. 2 deputies representing “Strong Ukraine” ignored the voting.
“There are no grounds to transfer to the Catholics of Sevastopol a historic building in the center of the city as Catholicism has always been a weapon against Orthodoxy,” stated from the platform of the Sevastopol City Council a member of the faction “Communists of Sevastopol,” Artem Maltsev, reported New Sevastopol.
He said that he gathered archive materials regarding the building. “The Russian Orthodox Church did not oppose the construction of the Catholic Church 100 years ago as the lower officer ranks of the Russian navy included at least 12 % of people from Poland, Western Ukraine, Lithuania and Western Belarus, where Catholicism existed,” stressed the deputy.
“During the cold war, Vatican inspired the arm race and the struggle against the Soviet Union and Orthodoxy, in particular. With the disintegration of the USSR, Vatican began to put deliberate pressure on the independent Ukraine in order to drive out Orthodoxy. In the western regions, Catholic and Greek Catholic communities were used for that. In Sevastopol, there are no such possibilities. The local Catholic community is small. They talk about 300 members but only 7 people come to the city council with their demands. And this small Catholic community is trying to carry out this expansion in Sevastopol. On what ground should the city make such presents to a small community? Catholicism has always been a weapon against Orthodoxy. Let me remind that about 80% of the residents of this hero city are baptized in the Orthodox Church,” said Artem Maltsev to the deputies of the council. During the previous consideration of the question, the Communist deputy made a similar call.
The deputy also called his colleagues to preserve the children’s cinema in the building.
According to representatives of the Roman Catholic community, they received suggestions to buy out the building or to build a new one.
As RISU reported earlier, the Roman Catholic community of Sevastopol has sought the return of the building of the former church for nearly twenty years.
