Hundreds of people celebrated the opening of a new church in Ostrava over the weekend

Ostrava - The new church dedicated to the Holy Spirit has been established for believers in Ostrava. The largest sacred building constructed in the city in the last hundred years has emerged in the space in front of the Luna cinema in Ostrava-Výškovice. It has been open to the public since this weekend. Hundreds of people attended the festive masses on Saturday and today.
    "On Saturday, when the bishop of the Ostrava-Opava diocese, František Václav Lobkowicz, consecrated the church, an estimated 1500 people came for the holy mass. Many could not fit inside. They stood outside as well as in other areas of the church, where screens and sound systems were set up," said parish priest Vítězslav Řehulka to ČTK.
    He added that a holy mass of thanksgiving to God for the new church was celebrated today. The main celebrant was the prior of the Břevnov monastery in Prague, Prokop Siostrzonek.
    Thirty-five believers from Václavovice in the Frýdek-Místek region, where Řehulka served before coming to Ostrava, also came to support him. They arrived by bus and followed the mass in the underground pastoral spaces. To have somewhere to sit, they even brought benches with them that they borrowed from their school.
    Discussions about building a church in this location have been ongoing since 1968. However, plans were thwarted by normalization, and the project gained traction again only in 1993. A decade later, a building permit was issued, and in 2004, construction began on the vacant lot surrounded by restaurants and the Kotva shopping center. This location initially provoked negative reactions from residents.
    "Today, I think people have gotten used to it. It’s life. We all need to eat and drink," added Řehulka. The total cost of the building, designed by architect Marek Štěpán, exceeded 32 million crowns. Believers contributed about a third of this amount to the budget.
    However, people contributed not only money. Many brought various stones and pebbles to the foundation. Thus, the building includes, for example, a coral from the Thai island, a stone brought by a soldier who served with a field hospital in Basra, and a pebble from the village of Komňa, supposed birthplace of Jan Amos Comenius.
    According to statistical data provided on the website of the regional office, in the Moravian-Silesian Region with 1.2 million inhabitants, over 40 percent are believers. Of them, about 80 percent belong to the Roman Catholic denomination. According to a census conducted by the diocese, about 70,000 people regularly attend Sunday services. The diocese is divided into 11 deaneries. The Ostrava-Opava diocese contains 586 churches and chapels along with 246 parish buildings. Among them, 289 churches and 22 parish buildings are listed as protected monuments.