ASIA/UZBEKISTAN - Prayer and fraternity: the faithful of Samarcanda celebrate St. John the Baptist

Thursday, 27 June 2019 prayer   fraternity   saints   christianity   faith  

Samarcanda (Agenzia Fides) - "The community of Samarcanda gathered in recent days to celebrate St. John the Baptist, a saint to whom the parish of the city is dedicated. We all prayed together and lived immediately after a moment of celebration and conviviality. It is an opportunity to experience fraternity and spend time with everyone, young people, adults and the elderly. Last Sunday, there was a solemn mass for the feast of the Saint: a solemn occasion to renew our faith and draw inspiration for our journey": says to Agenzia Fides from the Apostolic Administrator of Uzbekistan, Polish Franciscan Fr. Jerzy Maculewicz, OFMConv, who arrived from the capital Tashkenta Samarcanda to celebrate the feast with the local community.
The faithful of Uzbekistan are preparing to live the summer, a period in which, given the absence of catechesis, the priests take turns to go on vacation: “We try to guarantee a regular sacramental life in all the parishes. Even the faithful take advantage of going on vacation. This is very evident in Tashkent: the members of the Korean community and the diplomats who attend international mass return to their countries of origin. The Uzbek faithful, on the other hand, cannot always afford real holidays, so they take the opportunity to organize trips out of town and visit relatives".
The Catholic presence in Uzbekistan is made up of about 3,000 baptized, distributed in the five local parishes: there are approximately 700 faithful active in Tashkent, and others present in Samarcanda, Bukhara, Urgench and Fergana. (LF) (Agenzia Fides, 27/6/2019)


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