The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Major Archbishop
Sviatoslav Shevchuk, said that Eastern-rite Catholics in Odessa, the
nation’s third-largest city, are “perhaps the most discriminated
[against] religious community in Ukraine.”“In Odessa we still pray in a private house, which serves as the cathedral,” he said on December 11, during a visit to the city of one million.
“Be true Christians, be first to come to people, no matter what language they speak, what nationality they are or what religion profess,” he continued. “And we will go out of the Odessa underground.”