All but one of the 53 priests, most of the Sisters, Brothers, seminarians and lay missionaries, as well as lay representatives of all the Catholic parishes and diocesan organizations in Siberia and the Russia Far East - 200 people in all - met near Siberia's capital city Novosibirsk October 3 - 9 for an historic diocesan convocation aimed at building a sense of community and developing a vision for the emerging church in that part of the world.
Russian bureaucracy kept Father Michael Shields of Anchorage, a September arrival in Magadan, away from the convocation.
More noticeably absence, however, was the leader of the Catholic Church in Siberia, Bishop Joseph Werth, bedridden in the hospital and at home throughout the gathering. He broke his leg very seriously in two places two days before the convocation and was expected to be bedfast for a month and inactive after that for a long time.
The papal nuncio, Archbishop Francesco Colasuonno, who speaks fluent English, attended, as did representatives of Moscow-based Archbishop Kondrusievich and Karaganda's Bishop Lenga. The Holy Father sent a telegram of greeting with his apostolic blessing.
Msgr. R. George Sarauskas and and James O'Beirne of the U.S. bishops'office for aid to the Church in eastern Europe were there, too, as well as officials from the international Aid to the Church in Need organization and the German bishops' "Renovabis."
These three groups financed the conference, held about 50 miles out of Novosibirsk at a former young Pioneers summer camp, which, according to American-born Fr. Daniel Maurer CJD, pastor of Boktor and Komsomolsk, "looked more like a university, with at least 12 large buildings, including a theater, large meeting rooms and residency halls."
Sidelined as he was, Bishop Werth pressed Father Myron Effing CJD of Vladivostok into service at the last minute to preside at the opening Mass and deliver all the keynote conferences for the first day of the meeting, a day of spiritual recollection centered on the topic, "What is the Church?"
"Poor Myron had to work all day and night Monday with no sleep from an all-Sunday night flight," wrote Father Maurer. "But on Tuesday he did a great job, mostly in Russian, but continuing in English when he got too tired to think in Russian."
Father Jaroslav Spodar CSSR of Procop'yevsk (whose letter graced Issue 11), presided on behalf of the Bishop at most of the remainder of the sessions.
The group from Vladivostok and one other parish brought displays with them on the activities of their parishes; and before the convocation ended, all of the parishes had displays exhibited.
Another method of sharing was the exchange of tapes and printed music among the various parishes. The Vladivostok delegation received so many requests for copies of its musical accompaniments that Fr. Maurer used all his freetime and part of his sleeptime making and distributing 40 copies of some 100 pages of music produced in Vladivostok or collected from St. Petersburg.
On the first evening of the conference, Fr. Maurer asked for volunteers for a small choir to help everyone sing. Well over half the delegates showed up practically every evening before night prayer to learn new songs. Large numbers also signed up for the Russian Catholic Liturgical Society Fr. Maurer is organizing.
Not everyone was equally enthused by the music. Fr. Mohrbacher from Magadan, who was raised and trained in the Byzantine Catholic rite, expressed one of the tensions facing the church in Siberia, which has brought together church workers from many different backgrounds. "I went into cultural shock at the first liturgy," he wrote. "Considering that we were in the heart of Russia the Mass was so Roman and dominated by non-Russians that I was sick at heart. We even sang, 'Holy God, we praise thy name' in Russian."
Still the church in Magadan had the opportunity to share its own music. "We passed out our music," Fr. Mohrbacher wrote. "Our video cassettes were liked by all. We also had pamphlets, but were limited to what we could carry."
The delegation from Magadan had to leave two days before the end of the convocation, but Father still found it "a wonderful sharing" which "gave us a great feeling of being together." He also thought the "people and priests were delightful and inspiring."
Fr. Maurer also termed the meet "a huge success;" and Sr. Mary Ann Schippers from Chelyabinsk, on the other end of the "diocese" reported, "It was inspiring to see the enthusiasm and courage of everyone working together to build and spread the Work of the Lord in Siberia. We don't have the finances and material, but we're doing whatever we can."
The closing Mass was held at the Cathedral of the Holy Transfiguration on Sunday.
(extracted by Fr. Blaine from letters from Fr. Daniel Maurer CJD, Fr. Austin Mohrbacher and Sr. Mary Ann Schippers)
Sr. Mary Ann Schippers: "I had asked Fr. Wilhelm if I could give Holy Communion to our sick, elderly, and homebound. He asked the Bishop, and he gave us Sisters permission to do that. Bishop Werth wants us to continue visiting people who kept the faith alive secretly these seventy years. It's been wonderful bringing Holy Communion to two elderly people, who can't believe that God is so good to them in their late years.
"I've been teaching English to my Russian teacher and one or two of her students in exchange for teaching me Russian. It's hard work.
"Sister Mary Elise visits the children...in the hospital who are suffering from leukemia, bronchial asthma, and various nervous diseases which particularly affect children because of the fall-out of an atomic explosion here in 1957 and continuous nuclear radiation in this area from weapons and chemical testing."
Since the last issue, the three Agnesians have twice made the 1,765 - mile rail roundtrip to the see city of Novosibirsk. In the last half of August they went there for a historical-cultural orientation workshop and in October they were there for the diocesan convocation.
Their new home at 48 Avgustovskaya St. in Chelyabinsk is pretty well remodelled now and the sisters have their own telephone and fax (both at 011-7-3512-217833) and hopefully will soon be contactable via e-mail (at csa@mis.chel.su). Anyone calling by phone should remember the time there is 11 hours ahead of Central Standard time.
The parish in Chelyabinsk has a concrete foundation laid (a meter below and a meter above ground) for its new church and goes as a body to the building site every Simday after Mass to pray the rosary for those helping to build the new church.
Sisters Lucy Anna Wasinger and Mary Ann Schippers will return to the States in February to renew their Russian visas. They are expected in Hays Feb. 20. A fourth Agnesian Sister, Deborah Golias PhD, will be in a Maryknoll discernment process Jan. 10 - Feb. 8 and plans to accompany them back to Siberia in March.
A native of Nanty Glo, PA, Sister Deborah has headed the education department at Marian College in Fond du Lac, WI. A fellow teacher described her as "one of the most outstanding and respected teachers in the State of Wisconsin."
Third of a series of excerpts from an account of a visit with Bp.
Joseph Werth in Novosibirsk in January and February of this year.
Fr. Bitz can be reached at P.O. Box 9, Wimbledon ND 58492
or INTERNET:
bitz@acc.jc.edu or (701) 435-2310.
I went with the Bishop to preview a half hour program on the Church in Siberia which the local TV station was producing to be shown in the middle of March. It will be an overview of the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Siberia. I was very impressed. The TV station has given Bishop Werth and the Church quite a bit of coverage over the past three years, but with inflation they don't know if they can produce any more. Maybe a Catholic network or Faith and Values or public TV can help them by buying it for viewing here in North America. Later the Bishop let me watch two excellent videos on the Church in Russia, one of the city of Marx and one of Siberia. They are in German. It would be great if we could get them transcribed for use on American videos.
Father Jerzy [Karpinsky, S.J.] took me to the University to meet with Prof. Leonid I. Tushinskiy, dean of the metalurgy department and world-known expert. For the first 30 minutes we met in an outer office; finally he motioned us into his "personal office." Fr. Jerzy recognized the interpreter as a parishioner and great singer at the cathedral; now he discovered that she was the professor's daughter, Tatiana Tushinskaya. She also is a professor, in the department of world culture and history, and speaks perfect English. Both would love to develop some exchange program with universities in the Americas.
Coming home on a Friday night, I noticed many drunken people on the streets. The Bishop was quite disturbed by this and said they should just take away all Vodka in Siberia. There is an AA group in Magadan where there is an American priest. Someone could do much good for the Church in Novosbirsk if they would take on this ministry. Around midnight, one of the drunken neighbors pounded on our apartment door. Fr. Joseph talked to him through the door and persuaded him to go home. Since there is much crime in Siberia, everyone is afraid. I noticed they usually have three locks on the outside doors, including two vault-like rods that go into the top and bottom of the doorjams.
On the last weekend there, Dan McNeil and I drove 200 kilometers to visit Barnaul, a city of about 600,000 people. Father Walter Burckhard is a German priest from Paraguay. He came last August. His apartment is also his office, chapel, and guest quarters. People started coming at 9 a.m. for Eucharist, which started at 10. Some had to travel two hours to get there.
Father had a great rapport with the nucleus of people he has gathered since he came. They told me they are eager to learn. They could only remember three religious hymns, but they wanted to learn more. They did know "Holy God" and sang it heartily. I met a lady here who had no hands and no feet. They were frozen when she was 18 years old, in the terrible times of Stalin. Yet she was a woman with a verve for life and faith. She is the one who was concerned about experiencing and living the faith and being able to pass it on to those in the next generation, who seemingly were not that concerned. She is an inspiration to the pastor there and many others.
There is a former Catholic Church in Barnaul, and they are
trying hard to get it back. Even if they get it, it will cost much to
restore, since the steeples were all cut off by the communists, and
it is now a pharmacy. It took six months to get a phone line and
phone which cost about $800. Yes, inflation is terrible.
(Editor's note: Father Austin Mohrbacher, U.S.-born pastor in Magadan, stayed in Bishop Werth's apartment during the diocesan convocation in October and provided an ironic parallel to Father Bitz's memoirs: "I went to bed beat. I heard some noise but just turned over. The bishop had fallen a block from home and broke his leg. A couple of young fellows who were bombed picked him up and carried him home. That was the noise I heard.
Father Werenfried van Straaten OPraem, founder of Aid to the Church in Need, visited Novosibirsk and Omsk in September and wrote his helpers: "I preached near Novosibirsk in the presence of Bishop Joseph Werth, who you have already generously helped many times. During the Mass he baptized a young woman of the so-called 'Volga Germans.' Her face shone with a spiritual radiance. On the same day 20 Russians were baptized in the Orthodox cathedral, among them a Cossack officer together with 10 soldiers from his regiment. The fields are already ripe with the harvest. Quite rightly the Pope has forbidden any kind of proselytism."
Father Joseph Swidnicki, legendary circuit rider from Omsk a.k.a. "The Iron Monk," recently broke a rib in a fall from a tree.
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