Eastern rite mass at minus 15 I was to scout out a Catholic church for my wife to attend in Kiev . But instead of a cosy building, in 1990 I found myself standing in the snow at -15 C, on the steps of the “Museum of Scientific Atheism and Religion”. It was an open air Mass being held in front of of the former Eastern rite Catholic church of St Alexander’s , under the auspices of a young priest, towards the end of winter. In what seemed like a great act of spite and cultural vandalism, the great religious building had been divided up and partitioned by the Soviets into exhibition halls, narrow corridors and small offices. The dome of the church remained, but it had been roofed off from the rest of the building. In a fundamental way, Soviet atheism, through its continued low level persecution of religious people, and atheist education system, almost succeeded in separating the Ukrainian people from an essential part of their cultural identity - their religion. But Glasnost started the
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head