Security fears keep Catholics from church in eastern Ukraine

May 30, 2014

Catholics in eastern Ukraine are “living in conditions of great danger,” a bishop there reports.

Bishop Marian Buczek, who recently retired as head of the Kharkiv-Zaporizhia diocese, reported that citizens are terrified by the violence perpetrated by pro-Russian groups. The kidnapping of a Catholic priest intensified fears, he said.

In towns where the violence has been acute, Catholics afraid to go to Mass, the bishop said. However, he remarked that Catholics are not alone in their suffering, and that in some local towns “the Catholic and Orthodox churches have simply stopped functioning” because of the collapse of security.

 

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Further information:

• Eastern Ukraine bishop: Catholics are too frightened to attend Mass (CNS)