Mukachevo Bishop Calls for Solidarity
08.11.2006, [15:30] // Digest //
Koenigstein, Germany – Bishop Milan Sasik, head of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in southwestern Ukraine’s Transcarpathia Region, who has successfully fought for the construction of 50 new churches since his installation four years ago, invited his brothers bishops in Europe to “come and see” at first hand the suffering of his faithful. Aid to the Church in Need released the news on 30 October 2006.
During a recent visit to Aid to the Church in Need headquarters in Koenigstein, Germany, he described how 82-year-old Fr. Yuriy Fedaka, parish priest of the Greek Catholic Transfiguration Church in Uzhhorod, and his community have been celebrating Liturgy for 17 years in the open. Unfortunately the Russian Orthodox Church is unwilling to return or to share the former Catholic church with its original owners even if the civil court’s verdict is positive. “Fr. Fedaka is offering the prayers of his remaining life for Church unity and shows no fear of spending another winter in the freezing cold outside the Church he is not permitted to enter,” said Bishop Sasik.
Bishop Sasik’s greatest joy is the seminary with its 145 seminarians, which is running at full steam ahead even though the seminary chapel must still be completed. “We are grateful to Aid to the Church in Need and its benefactors for the contribution to the building of the Blessed Teodor Romzha seminary in Uzhhorod, and we count on further assistance to finish the chapel.” He went on to add that “seminarians in today’s Ukraine must be prepared for the challenges of modern society, brave in proclaiming the Gospel and capable of giving our people, above all our youth, orientation for all aspects of their lives.”
This year, the Eparchy of Mukachevo is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first publication of the ”People’s Chant,” a Byzantine church music book, and a new feast day (June 28) that was introduced to mark the recent translation of the relics of martyr Blessed Bishop Teodor Romzha to the Greek Catholic Cathedral in Uzhhorod.
Source: press service of Aid to the Church in Need
