Collection aids Eastern European Catholics

On May 17-18, a collection will be taken up in parishes in the Albany Diocese to benefit the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe.

Decades of rule by Communist governments left churches there in ruin, the ranks of priests and religious decimated, and catechetical materials few and far between.

Today, similar religious repression is on the rise in formerly Communist countries. In Belarus, for example, all unregistered religious activity has been illegal since November 2002. According to a Moscow newspaper, the Catholic Church was identified in an internal Russian government report as one of the most serious threats to national security.

In addition, many countries, such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Georgia, have been in tight economic straits since the fall of the Soviet Union, and poverty is rampant. Parishes lack the money to provide catechetical materials and update technology, and often cannot even restore their own ruined churches. Many parishes and dioceses struggle to provide necessary social services, such as soup kitchens, clothes closets and homeless shelters.

The collection for Eastern Europe, which began in 1990, has provided nearly $72 million to more than 3,000 projects in 27 countries.

In a letter read at Masses last weekend, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard called on Catholics to participate in helping to rebuild Catholic life in Eastern Europe.

"In the United States, we have been privileged to enjoy the freedoms and prosperity democracy provides its citizens," he wrote. "In generosity and solidarity, we must now reach out with even greater intensity to our brothers and sisters in Central and Eastern Europe who are making valiant efforts to restore the infrastructures that enable them to practice their faith.

"I invite you to give your generous support to their efforts to restore their ancient faith. In so doing, we will both satisfy their just aspirations and sustain their renewal efforts. Their faith is unrivaled, their hope unequaled; let our charity be unsurpassed."

(5/22/03) [[In-content Ad]]