The Situation and the State of the Catholic Church in Podole (the Winnica District) in the Period of 1941-1964

Abstract

The Kamieniec diocese, a part of which was the Winnica district, consisted of 101 parishes, 9 branches, 88 chapels with 302.858 believers. Such was the situation until the October Revolution. In the district alone “there were 55 Roman-Catholic churches with 46 separate chapels and believers numbered 153.516, according to the current administrative division”. The Winnica district included 1899 villages, 16 housing estates for workers, and 7 towns, which were inhabited by 2.390.000 people in 1941, and 2.037.000 in 1946.

As regards religious organizations, the process of closing buildings for prayer, churches, and orthodox churches on a mass scale started from 1932 onwards. It was carried out with such a consequence that in 1937 there was no official religious community. Only after the attack of Germany on the USSR on 22nd June 1941 a practical opportunity for the regeneration of religious life appeared; both the faithful and the clergy took advantage of it. We learn from the report prepared by A. Ustenko, a deputy to the chairman of the District Board in Winnica, that "from 1st January 1945 there were 997 religious communities in the Winnica district," and they all represented various religions. The authorities allowed the Catholic Church, to which 100.000 faithful belonged, to perform their religious duties only in 41 churches. These data, however, are incomplete, according to the proxy of the Board for the Religious Cult. The Winnica district, as he said, "[...] is specific in this regard, for there lives a large number of Catholics who are autochthons, and part of them are Ukrainians." In relation to their nationality, the Catholics were divided into Poles (ca. 60 per cent), and Ukrainians (40 per cent). National membership of the faithful was one of the essential criteria for closing the Catholic churches. In 1951 there were 18 open buildings for religious purposes in the district. Pastoral ministry was provided by Rev. M. Wysokiński, and there were 63.111 faithful.

In 1955 the number of open temples in the Winnica district remained the same. The number of permanent pastors changed. In all the parishes 6 priests worked. Outside their permanent residence, they could conduct pastoral work in other communities only two or three times a year.

The party and state institutions “succeeded” in 1962 by introducing nationality for the faithful, those who identified themselves with the Catholic Church. According to the office of the proxy the Board for the Religious Cult), the Catholics constituted 97 per cent - Ukrainians, and only 3 per cent - Poles. The year 1965 brought about some changes in the state policy towards the Church. Officially, the authorities confirmed that there were 20 Catholic parishes in the district, although 6 parishes were not registered.