Sudbury church to install fence amid ongoing drug use, vandalism outside

Faith Greco · CBC News

· Posted: May 12, 2025 5:32 AM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

A downtown Sudbury religion is gathering a obstruction astir its property, pursuing repeated problems with cause use, vandalism and information concerns connected its grounds.

St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church has been dealing with the contented for a agelong time. Father Peter Bodnar, who has served arsenic pastor for 2 decades, said the concern has worsened importantly implicit the past 5 years.

"It's not a bully situation extracurricular of the church, erstwhile radical person to travel successful and it's afloat of needles and feces and vomit oregon humor stains," Bodnar said.

"Every greeting we person to cleanable up."

He besides said tiny fires person been started extracurricular the building.

Despite installing information cameras, the religion has not been capable to halt the activity.

Trees planted astir the spot were chopped down successful an effort to summation visibility for police, but it made nary difference, Bodnar said.

A contractor has present been hired to physique a obstruction and gross strategy astir the property. It volition stay unfastened during services but beryllium locked during off-hours.

The religion is present fundraising to screen the costs of the fence, which is astir $29,000.

"We're not putting fences to support radical distant from the church," Bodnar said.

A melodramatic transformation

Carol Shyminsky has been a unpaid for the religion for 2 decades and has witnessed the melodramatic translation of the country firsthand.

"You wouldn't judge what these radical carry. They transportation 2x4s. They volition transportation bottles. They volition transportation a knife," she said. 

Shyminsky, who volition beryllium 85 successful August, explained that the church's fundraising activities, peculiarly their room that makes cabbage rolls and pierogies, are important to the church's survival.

However, the surrounding situation has go progressively challenging, making regular operations difficult.

"We've recovered knives stuck successful the religion door," Shyminsky said.

'Trying to support everyone safe'

Michael Gawalko is simply a parishioner who lives successful the country and often helps cleanable up the religion premises. 

He said the religion has go a unsafe spot for children, with discarded needles and cause paraphernalia scattered around. 

"I ever archer parents to look astir archetypal and cheque for needles, due to the fact that kids don't cognize what needles are," Gowalko said. "They're inquisitive, truthful they mightiness play with them." 

He has sympathy for those surviving connected the streets and said galore mightiness travel from hard backgrounds of breached families, abuse, oregon addiction.

"What tin we do? [We're] just trying to support everybody safe, the radical that travel to our church, due to the fact that if they don't travel to our church, past we don't person a church," helium said.