CV NEWS FEED // A Ukrainian Catholic parish in San Diego broke ground on its new permanent church on July 7 after 64 years of moving around San Diego County.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that St. John the Baptizer Ukrainian Catholic Church was founded in 1960 but didn’t purchase property to build a permanent church until 2018. Once the parish bought land in Santee, a city roughly 18 miles from San Diego, fundraising began. Approval to build was obtained in November 2023.
During the parish’s groundbreaking ceremony, Fr. Yurii Sas blessed the lot, and church members turned over the first spadefuls of dirt using shovels that were blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for six years,” Fr. Sas said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We are going to build a home for everyone. For Americans, Ukrainians, for all nationalities.”
The completed church will feature five golden domes, which are modeled after the St. Sophia Cathedral in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv.
Luke Miller, chair of the building committee, belongs to a family that helped found the parish 64 years ago. According to him, the war between Russia and Ukraine has influenced the project in recent years, as the St. John community has begun ministering to refugees from Mexico and Europe.
“[The new church is] a center of hope, because it gives people something to look forward to,” he said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
A Ukrainian family who escaped the war a year and a half ago called the new church “a piece of Ukraine here on the foreign land.”
“It’s not just a building where you can come and pray,” one member of the family added. “It’s also the community where you can meet people and feel at home.”
