Dispatch From Odessa: Mystery of the Only Latin Catholic Church Open in Southern Ukraine Under Communism| National Catholic Register

ODESSA, Ukraine — Exploring the grand city of Odessa, created in 1794 by Catherine the Great, I discovered many marvels. Orthodox churches, beautifully restored, thriving with activity. A happy, youthful populous. Streets lined with trees brought by Duke de Richelieu from around the world — American sycamores, magnolias, and poplars among them — because he saw horticulture as a way to show Odessa’s cosmopolitan purpose.  And I found a quiet corner of Catholic history that deserves recounting… Wonderous was a summer Sunday morning when, surrounded by believers after Mass, I was led to the basement at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Odessa to see a one-room museum dedicated to parish history.  “We kept the fire burning,” explained Zosia Zainczkovska, a lifelong parishioner at St. Peter’s. It was the only Latin/Roman rite Catholic Church allowed to continue functioning in southern Ukraine during the Communist period, under the guidance of one man, Salesian Father Tadeusz Hoppe, who ministered to the  city’s faithful from 1958 until 1991. The open status of St. Peter’s was especially remarkable, considering that the nearby Catholic Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral was converted into a gymnasium and the monumental Orthodox Transfiguration Cathedral was bombed.  “This is where our priest lived, for 45 years. From his arrival until his death in 2003, God rest his soul,” said Zainczkovska. Father Hoppe lived in the cellar because the state had expropriated the priests’ residence next door.  Dominating the museum is the priest’s big wooden desk. Prominently displayed on a wall behind the desk are two large frames each highlighting an outfit.  On the left, a black suit with a light-blue shirt, on the right a pastor’s full cassock: a delicate lace surplice under a burgundy cape, a stole with grapes entwined with stalks of wheat, and a biretta with a magenta pompom. Parishioners explained to me that on the street, their priest had to wear a working man’s suit, the very one on the wall. 

Dispatch From Odessa: Mystery of the Only Latin Catholic Church Open in Southern Ukraine Under Communism| National Catholic Register