A petition on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine calling for the transfer of a historic building of a Catholic school and seminary in Odessa to the religious community of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) has gathered the required number of votes for consideration.
According to the government’s online platform, the petition was submitted on March 31 and, as of June 22, it had reached the 25,000 votes required for official review.
“The building at 23 Nina Strokatoyi Street in Odessa was constructed in 1849 (architect K.J. Dallacqua) with funds from the Catholic Church and remained in its ownership until 1917. It has an area of 2,967.4 square meters and is part of a complex of religious buildings (the so-called ‘Latin Quarter’ of Odessa), located within the modern streets of Yevropeiska, Sviatoslava Karavanskoho, Rishielievska, and Nina Strokatoyi. In the center of this quarter is the cathedral, and along its perimeter there were various other religious and auxiliary buildings,” the petition states.
It is noted that the property complex is currently owned by the Ukrainian state, and in 2008 the building was entered into the national register of immovable cultural heritage monuments.
The author of the petition requests that the government consider the issue and transfer the former Catholic school building to the Odessa-Simferopol Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church.
