Ukrainian bishop asks pope, world leaders to help resolve problems

Published: 2005-12-09

LVIV, Ukraine (CNS) -- A Ukrainian bishop has written to the pope and world leaders, urging them to help resolve his church's "worsening problems." The bishop, who said local authorities refused to return Catholic properties seized under communist rule, asked for help to create "an international commission of experts that could travel to Ukraine and check out, on site, the facts of the violation of the rights and freedoms of the Roman Catholic minority in this region." "Representatives of our government on all levels declare an open position -- but I must unfortunately confirm that we Catholics consider (that) the situation has recently worsened," said Bishop Bronislaw Bernacki of Odessa-Simferopol. "In Izmail, the neighbors built part of their home directly under the walls of the church and blocked our windows. In another city, cars drive over the churchyard. Under the walls of the cathedral in Odessa, strangers wash their cars and walk their dogs. This is all open mockery and degradation of the Catholic Church," he said in a letter to Pope Benedict XVI and heads of government of the United States, France, Germany and Great Britain.

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