Polish priest says Berlin Archdiocese plans to close ethnic parishes

Published: 2004-02-13

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A Polish priest said Germany's Berlin Archdiocese planned to break up ethnic minority parishes by selling off their churches as part of a debt-repayment program. However, a church spokesman said the archdiocese would seek to ensure minority communities survived. "If our church is sold, it will be a great injustice -- we'll treat it as an act of injury and discrimination," said Father Jacek Pajewski, rector of St. Jan Kapistran Parish in Berlin's Tempelhof district. "The church authorities say we'll be able to use German places of worship and that this will help integrate Poles into local society, but we're more afraid it will weaken community bonds and hasten our denationalization," he said. In a Feb. 6 interview with Poland's Catholic information agency, KAI, the priest said St. Jan Kapistran was widely known as the "Polish church" after serving Polish Catholics for many years. He said about 3,000 people attended its three Polish-language Masses each Sunday, a higher number than average German congregations.

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