Problem of Re-settling Residents of St. George's Hill Unresolved
Lviv - Despite the fact that St. George's Cathedral in far western Ukrainian
Lviv was returned to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
(UGCC) 14 years ago, the adjoining buildings of the cathedral
are still the private property of people who were housed there after
World War II. To return the premises to the church, the city has to find
39 apartments for the families who currently inhabit them. At this time,
however, there are no funds in the city budget for this action. The Ukrainian
original of this story was posted on the site of the Lviv newspaper "Postup" (Progress)
on 15 November 2004.
People began to move into the premises around St.
George's Cathedral immediately after the war was over. In
1946, when the Soviet government declared the UGCC illegal, the buildings
were transferred to the communal property of the city. The inhabitants
privatized their apartments soon after that. All the apartments are now
the private property of the people living here. This was reported to "Postup" by Father Volodymyr
Onyskiv, ekonom (steward) of the Lviv archeparchy of the UGCC.
There were attempts to resolve the problem in 2001, before the Papal
Visit to Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers provided
funding and the inhabitants of 24 apartments moved out and were housed
in 36 apartments provided by the city's housing fund. The buildings were
renovated and today house offices of the Lviv archeparchy. To finally
return the rest of the buildings to the church, people from 28 apartments
would have to vacate them and move into 39 apartments (totaling about
2,100 square meters of living space), because, according to documents,
some apartments house several families.
The monetary worth of re-settling the people into comparable apartments,
calculated according to last year's prices, is about 3.5 million hryvnias
(about $US 670,000). The city treasury does not have this money. Therefore,
Fr. Onyskiv is convinced, the issue can only be resolved on a higher
level.
Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the UGCC, has turned to the president
and the Cabinet of Ministers more than once. The last address to Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych was sent on 5 August 2004. To this day, there
has been no response.
Source: postup.brama.com
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