BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/12/2006

Belarusian Roman Catholics Go On Hunger Strike Over Church-Construction Permit

A Roman Catholic priest and 11 female members of his parish went on a hunger strike in Hrodna, northwestern Belarus, on December 1 to protest the local authorities' refusal to grant the parish a permit for the construction of a church, Belapan reported. Father Alyaksandr Shemet told the agency that his community of 8,000 parishioners currently has two chapels that can accommodate some 320 people at a time. The community first filed an official request for a plot of land to build a church on in 1998. JM

Source:

Google