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After years of cramped spaces, Ukrainian Catholics bless chapel in Odessa
People arrive for a liturgy May 21 at the new Ukrainian Catholic parish in Odessa, Ukraine. (CNS photo/Mariana Karapinka)
Mariana Karapinka
Catholic News Service | May. 24, 2017
ODESSA, UKRAINE When Anastasia Voinikova joined the local Ukrainian Catholic community more than 20 years ago, liturgies were celebrated at the basement of the Roman Catholic church.
Later, in 2005, the community was able to purchase a private house and reconstruct it into a small chapel, which served as the cathedral for the Odessa Exarchate, which covers huge territory of southern Ukraine and at that time, Crimea.
But about 10,000 Ukrainian Catholics lived in Odessa, and the chapel could not house more than 100 people at a time.
On May 21, local Ukrainian Catholics blessed a new chapel at the outskirts of Odessa. With the help of Dutch and German aid agencies — and some financial support from Ukrainian Catholics in the United States — parishioners were able to buy abandoned Soviet-style construction materials and construct the chapel.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/after-years-cramped-spaces-ukrainian-catholics-bless-chapel-odessa