Exerpted from an account of a visit with Bishop Werth in Novosibirsk in January and February of this year. Father Bitz was Bishop Werth's host during the latter's July and August, 1993, visit to North Dakola. Father Bitz can be reached at P.O. Box 9, Wimbledon ND 58492 or INTERNET: bitz@acc.jc.edu or (701) 435-2310. This is the first quarter of his report.
Moscow, Jan. 22. Archbp. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz invited me to lunch. The taxi driver had a hard time finding his office since it is in the back of a large apartment complex. The Archbishop speaks excellent English and told me the bureaucrats create many obstacles for him and his work.
He has established a seminary with 17 students, but the government will not sell him a place for it. So he bought another small three-bedroom apartment in the same complex and turned it into a seminary. The dining room also serves as their chapel and study hall. The kitchen pantry serves as the bedroom for the priest director.
They walk 45 minutes to Immaculate Conception Church where they have classes. Recently the police came to the seminary in the middle of the night and took the seminarians in and booked them because they had not registered with the officials. Two of the seminarians in the top bunks were not taken in, because the police didn't see them.
Novosibirsk, Jan. 23. Fr. Joseph Messmer and Fr. Jerzy Karpinski, both Jesuits, met me at the airport. They recognized me because I was "strange" - not wearing a hat. They took me to an apartment 40 minutes from the airport occupied by Bp. Werth and Fr. Joseph.
Fr. Josephs grandparents had been exiled from Kandel [on the Black Sea] to Karaganda in Kazakhstan. The family consists of three girls, all nuns, and six boys, five of them priests already and the youngest in the seminary in Moscow. The father died, and the mother also joined the convent.
Fr. Joseph is a great storyteller. Talking matters of faith, he would often say: "Grandmother always said" - a phrase I heard often. I finally asked a group of people why they always said this; I wondered where the grandfathers were. They looked at me with startled eyes and in one voice said: "There were no Grandfathers. They were all shot!" Only the Grandmothers had the experience of faith and passed it on to their families in the absence of clergy.
In the morning, we went by car to a log chapel, near where the new Cathedral is being built. It took us about a half hour to get there. The body of the chapel is about 20' by 20'. Four of us priests concelebrated with Bishop Werth and the spiritual director of the seminary, a Jesuit from Japan, preached. Everything was in German. The chapel was packed with people standing in the aisle. A young German-Russian woman was organist and led the singing. They participated beautifully. Bp. Werth said she practices with the people after Eucharist every Sunday and she explains the songs to them. He said she really is a good preacher and catechist. She also teaches music at the seminary.
We went to the Jesuit house afterwards for a visit and dinner. Afterwards Bp. Werth was anxious to take me home to his apartment by means of the Metro. He said the Metro is the one excellent thing in which they have justifiable pride. It is beautiful, clean, warm, and fast.
Novosibirsk, the next few days. I became acquainted with the Curia and its work. We go to the office (about a seven minute walk from the Bishop's apartment) about 9 a.m. At 1 p.m. we would go back for the big meal of the day. We were back at the office at 3 p.m. and usually stayed until about 8:30 p.m., when we went home and had a light lunch before bedtime at around 10:30 p.m.
Fr. Joseph Messmer is the Bishop's secretary. Fr. Michael, from Germany, handles all the German communications for the office. Paulina (a German-Russian from the Volga) is the bookkeeper and general office manager, which sometimes includes cooking, doing laundry, advising, and keeping up others' spirits. At present there is no one who can handle English correspondence that comes to the Curia. Fr. Alexander Kahn has been in Moscow preparing for his doctoral examinations which were on Feb. 5 and 12. Fr. Jerzy is finance officer of the "diocese," but he doesn't work in the Curia. He is also superior of the Jesuit house in Novosibirsk, directs the diocesan news services, works at the Cathedral parish, is establishing a cultural center for university students and professors, and is the recognized computer expert whose e-mail address is INTERNET: jerzy@ignatius.nsk.su which makes him the source of much needed immediate, English communications.
Here one senses the pressures of expectations, needed ministries, plans and goals, staffing, building, finances mingled with quiet courage, hope, faith, and prayer.
Novosibirsk, Jan. 25. I decided to go with Fr.
Michael to celebrate Eucharist at the Church of the Immaculate Conception
- it took an hour by walking, metro and bus. This first
parish was started by the people in 1983. The first priest came
in 1984 and by 1986 they had built this new church, now served
by the Franciscans. There were about 10 women and one man
at Eucharist with us three concelebrants. Since it was a big feast
day, there was much singing, using the hymnal presently used
in Germany. The presider was a Franciscan from Germany. The
people sang very well. They observed all the Vatican II liturgical forms.
All of the "lead German-Russian Singers" have recently emigrated to
Germany and that is why the German-Russian hymns were not used.
Vladivostok, Russian Far East, Mar. 16.I spent last week in Novosibirsk in the heart of Siberia for a Lenten Retreat and clergy meeting for all the priests of the diocese. It was my first time to be there, and I was very glad I went.
I learned there are now nearly 50 priests in the "diocese." At various times over the course of three days, I must have met more than 30 of them.
Most were there for the whole time, but others had to arrive late or leave early because of their work and the incredible difficulties of transportation in Russia.
Most of them seem to be wonderful men. I was especially impressed with the young pastor in Omsk, who arrived there two years ago from his native West Germany, and the young pastor of a newly reborn parish in the smaller city of Omutinskoye, who is originally from Slovakia.
Only two are from the old days of persecution. They are both Ukrainians, one Roman rite and one Ukrainian rite. They both arrived in Siberia to do underground priestly work in 1981. Fr. Jaroslav [Spodar] worked as a miner for many years just to support himself and to provide a cover. The other was more open - and he was arrested and spent two and a half years in jail.
Bishop Werth mentioned that the other priests who worked underground in Siberia and outlived the persecution all died shortly after freedom was granted - as though they could finally "go in peace."
The other 50 of us have all come in since Gorbachev signed the agreement with the Pope in December 1989 and most have arrived later than Fr. Myron Effing and I (in February 1992).
There are six from Italy, including two young members of the relatively new spiritual renewal group Comunione e Liberazione. There are about 10 Polish priests, six or seven from East Germany and three from West Germany, five from Slovakia, one from France, four (including the Bishop) born in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, one from South Korea (who works on Sakhalin Island), and five of us from America, including the three of us here in the Far East; a Maryland Jesuit, who is vice rector of the seminary program in Novosibirsk, and a Chicago Franciscan at one of the two parishes in Novosibirsk.
I flew to Novokuznietsk near the coal-mining city of Prokopievsk and traveled with Fr. Jaroslav eight hours by train to Novosibirsk. I spent three days with him before and after the meeting. He lives in a small house with no central heat, no running water, no bathtub, and an outdoor toilet. It was on an average -15° F. Here in Vladivostok, it is usually well above freezing. We are very much further South than they - thank God. The train ride from Prokopievsk to Novosibirsk was on a crowded sleeper car with rows and rows of bunks three high.
Yesterday Fr. Myron left for the outpost of Aldan in Yakutia. This region has the distinction of being the coldest continuously inhabited spot on earth - with winter temperatures regularly around -80° F. He is going there for the solemn blessing by Bishop Werth of the chapel and religious residence of the Salesians of St. John Bosco, a group of four religious from Slovakia.
(Fathers Myron Effing and Daniel Maurer, both American born, are working at Most Holy Mother of God parish in Vladivostok, along the Pacific coast of Russia's Far East. Fr. Maurer is also pastor of the Catholic communities at Boktor & Komsomolsk. They can be reached through e-mail on INTERNET: daniel@catholic.marine.su. Donations toward their work can be sent to them at 225 Cordova St., Anchorage AK 99501.)
Hays, Kansas, Mar. 19. A month ago yesterday, Srs. Lucy Ann Wasinger and Mary Ann Schippers of the Sisters of St. Agnes left Chicago enroute to Chelyabinsk, Siberia. As the flight to Amsterdam was not full, they were given an extra seat to accomodate their abundant luggage. Arriving in Moscow, Feb. 19, they were waved through customs and met by Irene, Sasha and Ilya Plaksin, their "great hosts."
Arriving in Chelyabinsk on Feb. 23, they were met by Frs. Wilhelm and Reinhard, two of the four Focolare priests from Germany who minister to the Catholics of that area. Much of the first weeks were spent being welcomed "with much love" by the local people, some of whom verbally expressed awe of the Sisters' leaving "wonderful America" to come and be with and pray with them. "The Grandmas prayed a long time for this," wrote Sr. Lucy. The Sisters had their visas renewed for three months and in May can renew them for a year.
They have been staying with a couple named Maria and Colya until their own home is ready. To attend the daily 9:30 a.m. Mass, they leave at 7:30 and return home at 1 p.m. Colya, a paraplegic, speaks only Russian, and is able to devote his full time to helping them learn it.
The church is small but packed on Sunday for two Masses - one in German, one in Russian. After Mass all go to pray a Rosary on the site for the new church, designed by a German architect named Wesinger. So far only a hole exists. "It will become a Catholic center for a 200 mile radius," wrote Sr. Lucy. "Very great potential here for the Catholic Church."
Temperatures have ranged from 0° to 20° F, and they've learned quickly about dressing warmly.
The economy is bad. The U.S. dollar very high. People have no money, much faith. From both: "Happy Easter to all."
(This report is extracted from nearly a dozen communications received in Hays or Fond du Lac, Wisc., by phone, fax, and air mail. Hopefully e-mail will also soon be available.)
Correction: According to Fr. Al M. Bitz, the dedication of the Novosibirsk cathedral has been postponed indefinitely.
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