After Mgr Ravasi’s visit to Baku, a member of the Vatican delegation that went with him talks about the situation of the Church in the former Soviet republic. The age of religious persecution has been replaced by one of support and respect. The Catholic community is as tiny as it is active. The Sisters of Mother Teresa provide an example.

Baku (AsiaNews) – Azerbaijan is a predominantly Muslim country, but one that tries “to remain proactively secular and minority-friendly” and where the small Catholic community is able to make its contribution to society. For Fr Theodore Mascarenhas, who is in charge of the Asia, Africa and Oceania desk at the Pontifical Council for Culture, Azerbaijan shines as “an example of what a modern Muslim country can be”, a country he officially visited on 14-18 June, accompanying Mgr Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who had been invited by the Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abulfas Garayev.

Fr Mascarenhas spoke to AsiaNews about the situation of the Catholic Church in the former Soviet republic. In Baku, Catholics number about 450, and the Vatican established a missio sui iuris in 2000.

A history of persecution binds Christians and Muslims.  “The original Church of the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception was ordered destroyed by the Soviet government in 1931,” Fr Mascarenhas said. “The new church was built on land given by the Government of Azerbaijan and inaugurated by President Ilham Aliyev and the Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone in 2007. A year earlier, Mgr Guggerotti had consecrated it,” he added.

A representative of the Caucasian Muslim Office took the Vatican delegation to the new Bibi Heybat Mosque, which contains the tombs of descendants of Prophet Muhammad. The original building was knocked down during Soviet times.

Azerbaijani authorities and the Holy See are currently engaged in talks to settle legal issues arising from the country’s 2009 Law on Religious Freedom, which requires that all religious communities re-register, a situation that contradicts Catholic Canon Law. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church is “supported by the government”, which not only tolerates but also helps the country’s 70 ethnic minorities.

“Even though Catholics are a tiny minority, they are trying to contribute as much as they can to the country,” the clergyman said.

One example is the work of Mother Teresa’s Sisters, who “symbolise the government’s openness to a Christian presence but also show the impact of Christian love in a Muslim society.”

In Baku, five Sisters of Mother Teresa, four from India and one from the Philippines, run a House that is home to 14 people, most of them Muslim.

At the end of the visit, Fr Mascarenhas came away with the image of a country “committed to a multicultural model of inter-religious harmony, serving as a bridge between East and West, an example that many Muslim nations could follow if they truly want to be modern.” (NC)

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• vatican
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