Reaching out to Eastern Europe from St. Peter's Phibsboro

1000 Thanks from Kiev
Dear friends in St. Peter’s, I write to thank you all for the marvellous donation of €700 which I recently received from you for the Vincentian Mission in Eastern Europe. The money will be used to make life a little easier for some of the poor people we work with, here in Kiev, and in different places in Belarus, where our priests are working. Life there is extremely poor and difficult. We are still awaiting for Spring to come, and the cold at the end of the winter is hard, especially for elderly people.  I wish to thank everyone who bought one of our calendars, I hope it will remind you of us during the year, and hopefully cause you to include us in your prayers from time to time. I wish especially to say “go raibh maith agath” to Áine, who sold so many of the calendars for me.

Fr. Paul Roche, CM. Kiev
March 2003

Dear Friends at St. Peter's,

For a number of years I have been the recipient of generous help from the people of St. Peter's Parish - while working in Nigeria. Now I wish to thank you for the very generous contribution of £1,074 donated to Eastern Europe on Holy Thursday.

Since the fall of communism, Vincentian priests and sisters have been working in the former Soviet Union. We have priests in five separate missions in Siberia, Belarus and here in Ukraine. In January of this year these missions were grouped together, and I was asked to be the co-ordinator. I live here in Kiev the capital of Ukraine. It is a large and beautiful city of almost 3m people. I live in a rented apartment in a 20 story block.  There are little groups of Catholics in every big city, but we are a minority religion here- the Orthodox Church is by far the largest. Some are dealing with little groups and small congregations.

Since the fall of communism, the "safety net" which supported elderly people, handicapped persons and children abandoned from families have broken up. Now these groups are really suffering, and there is very little help organised for them. In all our areas the priests and sisters are involved in caring for the elderly (often hungry even starving in their homes) the little ones, and the handicapped. We have several "soup-kitchens" and places for giving our clothes and other forms of help. I will give your gift to such a project - probably the one in Nizjni Tagil in Siberia. Life is tough there and many children live under the streets where the hot water pipes connecting the tower block run.  It is a wretched existence and has no future. We are trying to work with them and care for them.

Thank you all for your generosity. Let’s pray for one another. Many people here have fantastic trust in God, and it is their faith which keeps them going. You will be in their prayers.

God bless, 

Paul C. Roche CM

Home   Vincentian Refugee Centre    St. Peter's Club    Mission to Nigeria    Eastern Europe
Vincentian Volunteers    Phibsboro Aid   St. Peter's National School    Parish of the Travelling People