When Anastasia Voinikova joined the local Ukrainian Catholic community more than 20 years ago, liturgies were celebrated at the basement of the Roman Catholic church.
Later, in 2005, the community was able to purchase a private house and convert it into a small chapel, which served as the cathedral for the Odessa Exarchate, which covers huge territory of southern Ukraine and at that time, Crimea.
But about 10,000 Ukrainian Catholics lived in Odessa, and the chapel could not house more than 100 people at a time.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
