Moscow, Russia, Sep 21, 2004 / 22:00 pm
A 24 year-old seminarian and member of the Neocatechumenate has purchased a disco in Moscow and said he intends to convert the building into a church.
According to the AVAN news agency and the publication, “Paraula,” Alejandro Sanchez Gamborino of Valencia, Spain, traveled to Russia in 1999 after “feeling a call from God to radically follow Him.”
The ex-disco will be the home of the future Parish of St. Olga and will provide a place for the liturgical celebrations which, according to Sanchez, “until now had to take place in homes or in halls provided by the Cathedral of Moscow.”
Sanchez Gamborino has begun a fund raising campaign to finance the rehabilitation of the building, “which has both exterior and interior damage, including satanic graffiti and other symbols on the walls.”
He said he has been surprised by the “numerous cases of people who were atheists during the Soviet regime, which carried out religious persecution for decades, and who have now converted to Christianity.”