Mgr Maculewicz, apostolic administrator of Uzbekistan, spoke to AsiaNews about how local Catholics celebrated the Resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church in Tashkent has about 400 members. Eight adults were baptised during the Easter Vigil and eight children did the same during the Mass on Easter Sunday. “Through the beauty of our church, the Risen Christ shows himself to non-believers”.

Tashkent (AsiaNews) – “Many non-believers were drawn by the beauty of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, decked out with many flowers by a Franciscan priest for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ,” said Mgr Jerzy Maculewicz, apostolic administrator of the Catholic Church in Uzbekistan. Non-believers “went in and out admiring the wonder of the decorations,” he told AsiaNews. “Through the beauty of our church, the Risen Christ shows himself to non-believers”.

Despite the difficulties of going to church on weekdays, "many faithful took part in Holy Week celebrations,” the bishop said. “This culminated with the Easter Vigil Mass.”

“People here are not very rich,” he explained. “Therefore, they rely on buses and streetcars to move around. Sometimes it takes more than an hour to reach the cathedral. But this did not stop the faithful from participating in large numbers in the liturgy on Holy Thursday and Good Friday."

During the Easter vigil, "eight adults were baptised. On Sunday morning, eight 10 to 12-year-olds did the same because it was hard for them to stay awake at night. In fact, Catholic celebrations are usually very long. About 400 people, practically every Catholic, took part in the Easter night service, which began around eight pm.

“Tashkent’s Catholic Church is international, with Mass celebrated in at least three languages: English, Russian and Korean. Since there is no missal in Uzbek, the liturgy is celebrated in the main languages ​​of the faithful: English because of the staff of various diplomatic missions in Tashkent and a branch of the Turin Polytechnic University; Russian because it is the most widely used language; and Korean because of the presence of many businesspeople from South Korea. Every Sunday, at least 300 people take part in the service."

One Sunday a month, the liturgy is also in Polish, since Poles were behind the construction of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1912. Construction halted in 1917 because of Russian Revolution and only resumed in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of the country.

The cathedral was completed and blessed in 2000. “That was an important year for the Catholic community,” Mgr Maculewicz said, and “This June, we shall celebrate the 15th anniversary of the inauguration of the church.”

“In December, we are going to celebrate the Extraordinary Jubilee proclaimed by Pope Francis.” In the Bull Misericordiae vultus, which announced the Holy Year of Mercy, the pope spoke of mercy as "the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us."

The bishop also told AsiaNews that for the Catholic Church in Tashkent, one of the key moments in the community’s life is "the Eucharistic adoration every first Friday of the month, along with the confessions.”

“For us,” he said, “it is an important moment because, thanks to the presence of priests, many of the faithful can have confession."

Uzbekistan’s Catholic community is divided into five parishes, in the country’s main cities.

About 80 per cent of the population is Muslim. About 8 per cent is Christian, mostly Orthodox Christians and Protestants.

• uzbekistan
• easter
• baptisms
• celebrations