SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (UCAN) -- Catholics in Navoi have been traveling far to attend Mass for more than a year, waiting for the official registration that will allow them to resume religious services in their St. Joseph Parish.

For six years, people gathered for Mass and other religious services in an apartment, but Uzbekistan law forbids religious gatherings in private premises. So in March 2006, Father Francis Stopkovicz, the parish priest, decided it was time to apply for formal registration of the parish in Navoi, a small town 450 kilometers southwest of Tashkent.

Since then, parishioners have had to travel either 120 kilometers to Bukhara or 150 kilometers to Samarkand for Mass.

The apartment in which the community of about 20 Catholics had gathered for liturgies officially belongs to Valentina Boruskina, a local Catholic pensioner. According to Father Stopkovicz, the Church purchased it in 2000.

The priest applied to register the apartment as a parish office. Once he receives permission for that, he can apply for permission for a church.

"If we want to work openly we must not violate the law," Bishop Jerzy Maculewicz told UCA News. The bishop took office as apostolic administrator of Uzbekistan in June 2005. He said that when the Navoi community was forming, it was possible to gather without registration, although technically illegal.

Meanwhile, the search for a suitable building to use as a church has begun.

"We would like to purchase a house, but it is very difficult to find a proper one," Father Stopkovicz said. He explained that the available buildings either are old and rundown or too close to mosques.

The authorities forbid other religious groups from establishing a visible presence among Muslims, who make up 88 percent of Uzbekistan's 27 million people, to prevent conversion. Members of the Russian Orthodox Church form the next-largest religious community in the country at about 9 percent. Catholic parishioners number approximately 500.

On April 8, Easter Sunday, 14 Navoi parishioners made the longer trip to Samarkand, where Bishop Maculewicz celebrated Mass. "I am glad to greet Catholics from Navoi and hope we will one day celebrate Easter in their own church," he told the 60 Catholics gathered in St. John the Baptist Church.

The Church had hired the minibus that brought the "visitors" to Samarkand. St. Joseph Parish provides local Catholics with the opportunity to attend Mass at least once a month, and on important feast days.

Such trips are not easy for Olga, since she and her husband always take all four of their children with them. This Easter, Olga had look after her children herself, as her husband was unable to get leave from work.

On the other hand, Sergei, 26, who works in the chemical factory in Navoi, sees the trips as a good chance to get together with other Catholics.

"We look forward to meeting all the Catholics of Uzbekistan at the annual meeting," he told UCA News. This year's meeting for all Catholics in the country is scheduled for mid-May, in the capital.

Besides the Masses in Samarkand and Bukhara, Father Stopkovicz visits his parishioners on various occasions, including birthdays, and holds meetings to keep the community intact. But prayers are not part of the community meetings. "We don't want to create problems," he said.

Like the rest of the priests in the country and Bishop Maculewicz, Father Stopkovicz belongs to the Conventual Franciscans, whom the late Pope John Paul II in 1997 entrusted with the pastoral care of the Church in Uzbekistan.

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