Prague, Dec 28 (CTK) – A new parish will be formed for the Prague community of deaf Catholics, the Prague Archbishopric said on Wednesday, adding that the solemn mass will be served by Bishop Vaclav Maly in the Saint Procopius Church on January 8.
There are roughly 30-40 deaf Catholics in the Czech Republic. They are also active outside Prague, but in the capital, they will have a spiritual guidance.
In May, a meeting of deaf Catholics from across Europe will be held in Prague.
In autumn, the community of German-speaking Catholics was raised to the status of parish in Prague.
Other groups of foreigners, too, have parishes with a permanent spiritual administration.
The Polish parish has about 300 members. The Slovak parish is even bigger. Despite the similarity of Czech and Slovak, Slovak church-goers prefer the divine services in their own language.
Up to 400 Slovaks regularly attend the Slovak Sunday mass in the Saint Henry Church in Prague.
English-speaking Catholics meet in the Saint Thomas Church. Along with the French, Spanish, Italian and Vietnamese communities, there are also the communities of Albanians, Armenians and Copts in Prague.
In the Prague diocese, there are more than 40 foreign priests.
The beginnings of the community of deaf Catholics date back to 2012 when they asked for spiritual guidance Polish priest Stanislaw Gora, who has been working in the Czech Republic since the early 1990s.
Gora has experiences with the deaf since 1996. He is helped by two assistants, one of whom translates into the sign language.
