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Catholic prelate rejects “proselytism” charge
Evangelization is necessary, archbishop says
After a May visit to the Catholic Church of Russia, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran stressed that Catholics in that land are not engaged in “propaganda” or “proselytism” but in a simple effort to share the Word of God with their neighbors.
Archbishop Tauran, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, traveled to Russia to participate in ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the reorganization of the Catholic hierarchy there. The homily which he delivered at the Moscow ceremony on May 27 was published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Responding to the complaints of Russian Orthodox leaders, who complain that the Catholic Church is drawing away their faithful, Archbishop Tauran said that the Catholics of Russia “practice discretion and respect for conscience” in their approach to their neighbors. However, he added, after years under an officially atheist regime the people of Russia need to hear the Gospel message, and “it would surely be a poor manner of respecting their freedom if we allowed others to remain in ignorance, rather than sharing with them what we have discovered.”
In 1991, after the fall of the Communist regime, two apostolic administrations were set up in the territory of what had been the Soviet Union. In European Russia, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz became administrator of Moscow, while Bishop Joseph Werth assumed pastoral responsibility for Siberia. In 1999 these two jurisdictions were divided, and two new apostolic administrations created. The four current administrations are for Moscow and Saratov in European Russia, and western (Novosibirsk) and eastern (Irkutsk) Siberia.
A Church of martyrs
Salute to Siberian faithful
Christianity is growing in Siberia, nourished by the blood of 20th century martyrs, as people abandon the “tired materialism” of the Communist era, a visiting prelate said.
Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos made his remarks as he presided at the first ordination of a Catholic priest in Siberia since the October 1917 revolution. The ceremony was held in the Immaculate Heart cathedral in Irkutsk.
As he ordained Peregudov Yevgeni Yuryevitch to the priesthood, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos paid tribute to the people of Irkutsk. “How many sacrifices have you made, and how much courage have you shown in order to conserve your Christian identity?” he asked rhetorically.
The visiting cardinal, who is the prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, encouraged the people of Siberia to “live in the present with a lively charity, while always preserving the memory of the past.” He told them that “the Church of the new millennium is now born from the blood of the martyrs of the end of the second millennium.”