Hrodna: Two Catholic Hunger-strikers Taken to Hospital

04.12.2006.

Participants of the hunger strike in Hrodna, parishioners of the community of the Roman Catholic community of Our Lady of Vostraia Brama, Mother of Mercy in Hrodna, Teresa Milasheuskaia (born in 1938) and Iryna Hiliuk (1935) were hospitalized today in the night. They were diagnosed a hypertensive crisis and therefore had to stop the hunger strike.

The hunger strike was announced on 1 December. First there were 12 participants, and then the number grew to 15. They are mostly women aged 39 to 79. The believers demand from the authorities a written permission to build a new church. The decision to go on a hunger strike is explained by the fact that for almost 9 years the community cannot get the permission for building a church in Repin Street, 2. The community is 8,000 members-strong, and it possesses a little brick building of St. Peter and Paul chapel, and a wooden chapel for 300 seats. They are situated on a lot of land of 0.27 hectares. These buildings cannot admit all believers who come for services.

City authorities so far do not react to the huger strike of the believers.