The RCC called for the ownership of the school and seminary premises in Odessa

Stanislav Shirokoradiuk, the ordinariate of the Odessa-Simferopol diocese, appealed to the public to support an electronic petition to transfer the historic building of the Catholic school and seminary in Odessa to the religious community. According to the church representative, the building, located at 23 Nina Strokatoi Street, is threatened with actual seizure by state structures, despite its historical belonging to the Catholic community.

According to the information resource of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, this building was erected in 1849 according to the project of the architect K. I. Dallakva exclusively on the funds of the church. Before the forced nationalization in 1917, the object with an area of almost 3,000 square meters was part of a single church complex, which included a cathedral, orphanages for orphans and the elderly, a library and charitable institutions. During the Soviet period, the premises were used for various needs, and at the moment their legal owner is still the state of Ukraine.

The conflict escalated after in 2020 the church community at its own expense carried out major repairs in the rented part of the premises (about 300 square meters). A Sunday school, music classes and a spirituality center were opened on the basis of the renovated premises. Shirokoradiuk notes that «as soon as the officials saw the results of the repair, they demanded to leave the premises». The text of the petition emphasizes that the return of the building to the Catholic community will be not only an act of restoring historical justice, but also a powerful impetus for the development of humanitarian initiatives in the region.

Earlier, the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk, together with the head of the Kyiv-Zhytomyr diocese of the RCC Vitaliy Krivitsky, took part in Easter worship events according to the Western Christian calendar in the Alexander Roman Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv. Shevchuk congratulated Roman Catholics on Easter, expressing confidence that the risen Christ will help overcome the darkness of war and grant Ukraine the long-awaited victory.