The foundation stone of the new Catholic church of Latin rite, the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was laid in Kiev on 1st May. The bishop of the diocese of Kyiv-Zhytomyr, the Most Rev. Stanislav Shyrokoradiuk, who officiated the Mass, said in his homily: “The building of this church is a sign of the new presence of God in this land, a sign that demonstrates that the Church is alive and is developing, because it has a need for places of worship, and, at the same, it’s a sign of the religious freedom that is gradually spreading in Ukraine”. So the building of the second Catholic church in the capital of Ukraine, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was begun on 1st May. At the present time, there is only one Roman Catholic church, the cathedral, in Kiev, where there is a population of 4 million. Apart from the one now under construction, four other parish churches have been waiting for a permit for years; permits to build new churches are very difficult to obtain. It is estimated that the Catholics of Kiev who regularly go to Mass on Sundays number over 5,000.
