BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/12/2006

Catholics in Belarus stop hunger strike after getting OK for church

Parishioners and their priest in Grodno, Belarus, stopped a hunger strike after local officials tentatively agreed to build a church following nearly 10 years of dispute over a building permit.

Officials said the final decision to allow the construction depends on a surveyor's report, said Father Antoni Gremza, spokesman for the Grodno Diocese.

Father Gremza told the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza that the parish had been asked to pay for the survey, although the parish presented its own survey earlier this year.

Bishop Aleksander Kaszkiewicz of Grodno received a signed "initial accord" Dec. 7 from the city's deputy mayor to allow church construction. The district's governor also signed a note supporting the building site.

Sixteen women launched the protest with Father Aleksander Szemiet of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Grodno Dec. 1 in a heated wooden shelter that has been used for Mass since the parish was registered in 1997.

The protesters, ages 34-79, were ethnic Belarusians, Poles and Russians. Local newspapers reported that two elderly Catholics had been hospitalized early in the strike, but had vowed to continue the action after being discharged.

Father Szemiet told Gazeta Wyborcza the protesters "are ready to restart it at any moment if the authorities again try to withdraw their decision."

The Catholic Church makes up 14 percent of Belarus' population of 10.3 million, and officials have complained of discrimination under President Aleksander Lukashenka, who was re-elected last March amid claims of ballot-rigging and intimidation.

Source:

http://www.totalcatholic.com/universe/index.php?news_id=1992&start=0&category_id=5&parent_id=0&arcyear=&arcmonth=