"In the beginning," said Bishop Werth, "the Church in Siberia was in, as you say in English, haose."
No - he kept shaking his head - he didn't mean house. And with his German accent he kept repeating he meant ha-ose.
This communication struggle - but one of many - was aptly symbolic of what the Bishop was trying to get across: "In the beginning," there was "chaos."
Siberian church life can really be chaotic. The reasons can be as complicated as trying to build a cathedral, or as simple as trying to buy gasoline to take someone to the airport. Everything is embryonic. Whether one is the Bishop's secretary or the cook in the church, everyone does work that is not in his or her job description.
Yet the Church grew remarkably during 1993. Novosibirsk alone witnessed the consecration of a seminary, an orphanage construction site, a cemetery, and the cornerstone of a cathedral. And each city has its own story.
The consecration of the church in Marx was for the Bishop the most important representation of church development in 1993, since it is the first Catholic church built in Russia since the revolution.
[Fr. Blaine: The church was begun under the Bishop's leadership, when he was still Fr. Werth, parish priest of all the Catholic congregations along the lower Volga.]
Work on the Novosibirsk cathedral continues, but it was slowed by demands of the construction firm for a renegotiated contract due to inflation. Bishop Werth said the cathedral will not be ready for the previously planned Aug. 6 dedication. [Fr. Blaine: In Denver last August, when asked how, given the uncertainty of all other construction in Russia, he could be so certain the cathedral would be ready for an Aug. 6th dedication, the Bishop replied, "We will dedicate it whether it's done or not, since we have invited people from around the world."]
Church construction has also started in Chelyabinsk, the western Siberian city scheduled to become home next week to the Sisters of St. Agnes of Fond du Lac WI.
The city of Omsk did not see the start of church construction in 1993, but it expects to begin it in 1994.
Czarist-era church buildings have now been repossessed in Vladivostok, Barnaul, and Tobolsk, but in every case major repairs will be needed. No progress has been made, however, in reclaiming other czarist-era churches in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Tyumen.
Though things started out in chaos, Bishop Werth said he expects 1994 to be a year of order - more or less. Presently 45 priests serve in the diocese compared with 33 just a year ago. A structure is forming, said the Bishop, noting that most of the priests now have telephones and faxes. 1994 will be the first year of using standardized registration books to record baptisms, weddings, and deaths in the parishes.
Special attention will be given to the family this year, said Bishop Werth. In a recent Christmas letter, he said that the number of priests do not make the Church, but rather that "the exemplary Catholic family is the fundamental strength of the Church and the source of its life."
It has been through the family that faith has been preserved in small communities throughout Siberia. Currently about 100 communities of 10 or more believers have registered with the government, or are in the process.
These communities are mostly in rural areas and are made up of people of German descent. This Russian-German ethnic group makes up about 70% of the practicing Catholics in Siberia, according to the Bishop.
Bishop Werth views these people as the foundation of the Church in Siberia and told with enthusiasm of his recent trip to the village of Vetvesti, not far from Krasnoyarsk (which is about 325 miles east of Novosibirsk).
Nearly half of the inhabitants of the village are ethnic Germans from Schoenchen, the Bishop's ancestral village along the Volga - a village which unfortunately no longer exists.
During the communist era, a priest would visit Vetvesti about every 10 years. At night he would meet with the people and celebrate Mass, doing what he could to perform baptisms and weddings.
The Bishop met an elderly man who 30 years ago prepared for his marriage and went to confession. But the wedding did not take place; that night the priest was arrested before Mass. Thirty years later, now, Bishop Werth was celebrant at his wedding Mass.
"Sometimes we like to say that we are starting from zero," the Bishop said. "But that is completely wrong. People have believed here for 70 years. And upon this strong foundation, we are just building further. Yes, we now have more freedom than five years ago. But if it were not for the faithfulness of thousands of people, we would be unable to do anything."
"In relation to the Russian Orthodox Church there are also some problems which we are seeking to clarify and resolve according to the principles of ecumenical dialogue. Here I should like to mention briefly two questions which are very close to my heart. The first concerns the foundation of Latin Dioceses in the territory of the former Soviet Union. This refers to Dioceses which existed in the past and were later suppressed by the communist regime; thus Catholics of the Latin rite remained for decades without Bishops. That was a great injustice, which must now be put right. Then there is the Greek Catholic Church, which suffered particularly fierce persecution at the hands of the communist regime, but has always remained faithful to the Apostolic See. Today, after many years underground, it is rebuilding its ecclesial structures."I am confident that all the problems which arise can and must be resolved in the charity and truth of ecumenical dialogue."
After recalling the many gifts he had received from the Sisters of St. Agnes as a child, Fred L. Wiesner of Aurora CO wrote to the Sisters in Fond du Lac, "And now, that same providence is about to be shed onto some very lucky youth in Chelyabinsk. Through your sacrificial efforts, may the gentle rainfall of God's grace henceforth descend on the parched spiritual landscape of our beloved Russia. When you publish your newsletter let me be on top of the mailing list. I want to share your joy, whilst at my age of 82 I am unable to give assistance by my presence." On a copy sent to a letter from SIBERIA, Fred added: "I get butterflies in my stomach. We are reliving the joy of the first apostles as they planned the spread of the faith."
In his Christmas pastoral letter, Bishop Werth used the occasion of the International Year of the Family to speak at length of the need to strengthen the Catholic family in Siberia. After speaking of atheistic efforts to destroy the family as well as dangers inherent in the so-called free-world morality, he stressed the indissolubility of marriage and urged the families under his care "to draw strength from daily shared prayer at home," as well as on Sundays in full participation in the Eucharist. He also urged all Catholic families to consecrate themselves to the Sacred Heart "with a careful preliminary preparation for this religious act."
A Christmas card received from Aid to the Church in Need carried a photo of the ruins of a former Catholic church in Volgograd. According to the card, the church was confiscated under Stalin and used as a communist youth club named after Zdanov, one of Stalin's close friends. "It was the only church in Stalingrad that was not razed to the ground by the communists. When Gorbachev called for Perestroika and there was a risk that the building might have to be given back to the Church, it was destroyed. The former church at Marx was also destroyed fairly recently - to make room for a flower bed, it was said.
Fr. Al Bitz, who was Bishop Werth's host in North Dakota last summer, is presently in Novosibirsk, according to Dan McNeil. Father planned to spend some weeks in Siberia acquainting himself with conditions there so that he might more easily be able to coordinate assistance to the Siberian church in North Dakota. McNeil wrote in a cover note to his article at the beginning of this issue, "I know that Fr. Al Bitz is in town. I have not talked with him yet, but I think he is doing well. On Saturday we should be taking a drive to Tal'menka." Hopefully Fr. Bitz will share some of his observations with readers of this newsletter sometime in the near future.
Keep an eye on Our Sunday Visitor, as it is planning to run two articles by Anne Carey on the Siberian church - as a follow-up to her marvelous 1992 series on Bishop Werth's visit to Kansas. One article will be on the Agnesian Sisters' going to Chelyabinsk and the other on Frs. Myron Effing and Daniel Maurer's work with the Church in Vladivostok. ALSO- The Way Home, produced by Catholic Charismatic Services of Dallas, will air video footage of the Church in Vladivostok in early March on EWTN and numerous other local TV stations. For EWTN, the schedule (CST) is Mar. 6, 10 p.m,; Mar. 9, both 5 a.m. & 5 p.m.; and Mar. 12, 1 a.m.
Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk, ordinary of the new eparchy of Kolomyya-Chernivtsi in the Ukraine, had his seminary training interrupted by a 10-year imprisonment (1947-57). Exiled to Chelyabinsk, he worked as a woodcutter in the Urals and as a miner in Kazakhstan. He was secretly ordained as a priest in 1956 (while in prison) and as a bishop in 1974 (Osservatore Romano 21 July 1993).
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