SHAKHTINSK, Kazakhstan (UCAN) -- Parishioners in this coal-mining center hope the building of a full-size church will bring more people back to Mass.

Consecrating the new church's cornerstone was a first step toward a public presence for 20 Catholics of Nativity of the Virgin Mary Parish in Shakhtinsk. Until now, they have been meeting for worship in a private house.

The city is 45 kilometers southwest of Karaganda, a major city about 200 kilometers southeast of Astana, Kazakhstan's capital.

On Sept. 8, Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the Catholics gathered at the building site to launch the church's construction, and several told UCA News they hope more will become active parishioners once the new church is done.

Shakhtinsk used to have about 2,000 baptized Catholics of German, Polish and Ukrainian origin, but now only about 40 regularly go to Mass.

Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga, who heads Karaganda diocese, and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Karaganda attended the Sept. 8 gathering.

The archbishop told parishioners: "It is not important how many of us are here. One man can change the world and one man can destroy it." He said he hopes that the planned 696-square-meter church, which Church authorities say will take three years to complete, will bring many blessings on Shakhtinsk.

Until the church becomes available, people will keep meeting in a small chapel inside a private house that the Church bought in 1993. The first Mass was celebrated there in 1994. These days, Roman Catholics gather there each week for Mass, and Greek Catholics have their own weekly Mass as well.

About 80 percent of the coal mining for which Karaganda is famous is concentrated in Shakhtinsk. In recent times, however, economic problems forced many mines to close. As people left Shakhtinsk, the number of Catholic Massgoers dropped from 120 to 40. People have been returning as the economy improved in the last two years, but Catholics are still few.

One of them is Taisia Lubenko, 77. When she was a child, her family was deported from Belorussia (now independent Belarus) to Kazakhstan under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Since then, the Catholic Church symbolized her origin.

Lubenko did not know about Shakhtinsk's "hidden" parish for some time, so she used to go to Karaganda for Mass, but commuting there became harder as she grew older. She then began to attend the Russian Orthodox parish in Shakhtinsk but that ended when she finally discovered Nativity of the Virgin Mary Parish.

Valentina Blavatskaya, 59, was led to the parish by Polish classes, which she started in 1994. She told UCA News she has prayed at home since she was baptized at 6 years of age. "I feel my soul is searching for something more and more," she said, "and the older I get, the more I reach for faith."

Despite the small number of active parishioners, the Catholic community is self-sufficient. Its members shoulder all chores and pay all expenses.

Nikolay Onsovich, a 28-year-old seminarian, regards Nativity of the Virgin Mary Parish as the cradle of his vocation. He was born in Shakhtinsk and began attending Mass when the parish house was set up.

When he was 19, he became parish administrator and had to learn how to settle bills, run catechism classes and do other parish work. "Responsibility is always a burden, but I like my duties," he told UCA News. "The parish has become my life, a part of me."

After graduating from university, he studied philosophy in Rome. Now, he is a third-year seminarian in Karaganda but still serves as Shakhtinsk's parish administrator. "It sometimes is hard to combine studies with parish work, but I thank God for letting me do what I am doing," he said. "I am also happy that a small chapel will soon become a big, beautiful church."

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