Sister Johanna Stach came in March to minister among the German-Russian community of the Altai. For many of the people, it was the first time they had encountered a religious in over 50 years.
Only small groups of Catholics, usually about 15 elderly women, remain in most villages. The women have maintained an intense prayer life, Sr. Johanna said. They all tried to make faith present in their families, she added, but the younger generations generally did not accept it.
Not having a shepherd for such a long time has taken its toll. Prayers from 50 and 60 years ago are the only ones they know. "Such a kind of prayer is not bad," Sister said. "But they need to understand that youth need a different type of prayer. That the younger generation have a hard time praying with those older prayers."
The communities lack a tradition of the Blessed Sacrament. "They did not properly understand the Eucharist," she said. Kneeling and silence during adoration had to be explained to some, but others remembered what they had done along the Volga.
The Catholic community of Tal'menka, approximately 90 miles south by southeast of Novosibirsk, consists primarily of German-Russians from the village of Wittman (Zolotovka) along the Volga. Like elsewhere in Russia, however, those with German ancestry are emigrating to Germany. "It makes it difficult to work with them," Sister said, "when you know they are leaving in six months."
"We also prepare them for life there," she said, "and they need to be prepared." Sr. Johanna tells them that in the West it is more difficult to maintain their faith, because of all the distractions. "They need to take time to read about their faith, to expand it, and think about what is behind it rather than just preserving some prayers."
Sr. Johanna, who is from the small town of Geltendorf near Munich in southern Germany, finds Siberia a good place to expand her faith. Big city distractions remain foreign to Tal'menka. According to Sr. Johanna, life is simple there; a little church, a small place to live, and believers that are very loving.
"We can learn a lot from these people," she said. "Their faith has been proven through hard times. They have faith with a full heart."
The Tal'menka parish serves eight villages within a 36-mile radius. Serving with Sister at Tal'menka are her fellow sister in the Pro Deo et Fratribus community, Sr. Maria Hornnegger of Innsbruch, Austria, and Fr. Thomas Hohle from East Berlin.
The three of them visit the Catholic communities around Tal'menka, but do not manage to be everywhere. "It is better to do good work in a few places," Sister observed, "than just to drive around distributing sacraments."
The Sisters found their way to Tal'menka when Bishop Joseph Werth invited their community to minister in the Altai. In addition to Tal'menka, the community has Sisters in Schumanovka (near Slavgorad), Scerbakty (near Pavlodar, Kazakhstan), and in Moscow where they opened the "Home of Mary," a soup kitchen and clothing distribution center for the poor.
Pro Deo et Fratribus was started in 1968 by the initiative of a Slovak bishop. The community consists of both religious and lay people, and in 1990 alone opened houses for 80 sisters and 30 brothers.
Sr. Johanna is sure she has found her home. "I really like being in Russia, I think it is my place," she said. "There are many frustrations, but I like it that there is so much going on with the Russian people. They strive for understanding, and whatever they understand about faith is very deep in their heart."
Jesuit Fathers Edward Huber and Bernhard Groth have returned to Germany after teaching philosophy and theology during the spring semester at the State University in Academic City, 18 miles from Novosibirsk, and the State Pedagogical Institute in Novosibirsk itself. Fr. Groth left in June, but Fr. Huber stayed till August to lead the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in Russian for the local Jesuits and in German for the Pro Deo et Fratribus communities. Fr. Huber will return next year to teach political philosophy.
Construction began in August on a new building complex for Caritas Novosibirsk. Partially financed by Caritas Germany, the new complex will house, not only Caritas offices, but also a 54-bed orphanage, a convent for the three recently-arrived Sisters of St. Elizabeth who will staff the orphanage, and lodging space for guests of the Apostolic Administration.
During August, Caritas Novosibirsk distributed more than 3.7 tons of food products donated by Medjugorje Deutschland of Beuren, Germany. Concentrated soup, margarine, sugar, peas, lintels, rice, flour, macaroni, and oil were distributed through six different organizations: two representing families with many children, two representing the handicapped, and two congregations of Sisters who distributed food to the poor they visited. The food arrived June 16 by truck along with six tons of clothing, religious books, and various other things.
Fr. Rudolf Kohstrung, O.F.M., is now working full-time with the German-Russian parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church in Novosibirsk. Fr. Guido Trezzani, O.F.M., has succeeded Rudolf as director of Caritas Novosibirsk.
Bp. Joseph Werth of Novosibirsk; his travelling companion Msgr. Johannes Boersch, vicar general of the Apostolic Administration of Karaganda and pastor of Werth's boyhood parish there; and their host, Fr. Al M. Bitz, rector of the Fargo cathedral, took a whirlwind tour of North Dakota - back and forth from one end to the other, as well from top to bottom - July 30 to Aug. 11.
Introduced last year to the Kansas Volga-Germans as a fellow Volga-German, the Bishop became known throughout North Dakota as "a fellow Odessa German." Both, of course, are correct, since his father was deported to Kazakhstan from Schoenchen along the Volga and his mother from near Odessa on the Black Sea. Something between 30 and 42 per cent of the entire population of North Dakota, however, descends from Odessa Germans.
At Mandan, the Bishop spoke of the martyred German-Russian Bp. Alexander Frison (1873-1937), only to learn that Frison's grand-niece was sitting in the congregation. He also met Emma Reiger, now of Minot, in whose home at Kandel near Odessa in the Ukraine, Bp. Anton Zerr, 83, retired bishop of Tiraspol, died in 1932, and also a priest friend of his own former pastor, Bp. Alexander Chira, who died in 1984.
The Bishop presided at Masses in nearly a dozen cities and villages and personally met thousands of North Dakota's ethnic Germans from Russia. He also attended the send off for the Fargo diocese's pilgrimage to World Youth Day 93.
At Bismarck's University of Mary, he met the entire presbyterate of both ND dioceses, including a number of priests who expressed interest in serving in Siberia.
On other occasions he met several lay people of such mind.
Bp. Werth arrived in Denver on Aug. 13 after a side trip to Fond-du-Lac WI, where he met with the leadership - old and new - of the Sisters of St. Agnes, who are still discerning their community's accepting a mission in Siberia.
During his visit in Denver, the Bishop did not personally meet the Pope, but he had an opportunity to meet with the director of the American bishops' office for aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as many bishops from all over the world.
Included among these was Archbp. Francis Hurley of Anchorage, whom he playfully calls "my auxiliary bishop," since the Archbishop has been personally active in Magadan and has several missionaries there.
Bp. Werth also met bishops from areas of South America and Canada where there are large German-Russian populations and was interviewed by retired Archbp. Philip Hannon of New Orleans for the latter's New Orleans TV station.
One U.S. bishop told Bp. Werth that, during a recent ad limina visit to Rome, he was surprised by the Pope's talking for five minutes about Bishop Werth's "diocese" in Siberia. "I didn't have the heart after that," he added, "to talk about my own problems."
Bp. Werth wondered how he could find the young people who had come from Siberia. By a minor miracle, however, all of them individually found him in the immensity of Mile High Stadium.
After the papal Mass on Aug. 15, Bp. Werth and Fr. Bitz joined the Capuchin friars at St. Francis Friary for evening prayer and supper.
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