Greek Catholic trying to oust an Orthodox priest from a prayer house in the diocese of Ivano-Frankovsk

Three Greek Catholic priests, one of them in charge of Uniate hospital churches, arrived at the Ivano-Frankovsk Regional Hospital for Infectious Diseases on August 2, 2005, to request the chief physician to allocate to them a facility for divine services. The doctor replied to this request that there was no need for opening such a facility as there was already a St. Panteleimon’s Prayer House in the hospital. Its rector, Rev. Oleg Pyatnitsa has served in it for over two years now. The Greek Catholic priests responded by offering to conduct divine services in tern. The outcome of this arrangement is easy to predict as a similar situation already took place at the Pasichnaya District Hospital in Ivano-Frankovsk, where the Uniates, after some time, did not let an Orthodox priest in the prayer room, saying he ‘hindered’ them.

It is apparent from the actions undertaken by the Greek Catholics that they again try to use various means to seize not only churches, which are already few, but also prayer houses belonging to the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thus ousting it from the Ivano-Frankovsk Region.

Press-service

Ivano-Frankovsk Diocese

Ukrainian Orthodox Church