Catholics celebrate the anniversary of Tajikistan's Sui Iuris mission
Dushanbe (AsiaNews) - The Church of Tajikistan is celebrating 15 years of Mission
"Sui Iuris" which allowed the rebirth of Catholicism in the country
after years of communism and the civil war of the early 1990s. For the occasion, Fr. Carlos
Avila, a missionary of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, and superior general
of the mission spoke to AsiaNews about
the history of the small Catholic community in Tajikistan. It
survived the horrors of war through the work of the priests and nuns of Mother
Teresa, the only institution that has not left the country during the period of
ethnic conflict erupted after the collapse of the Soviet
Union.
Below is the article by
Fr. Carlos Avila.
On
29 September 1997, His Holiness Pope John Paul II proclaims the mission
"Sui Juris" in Tajikistan,
to give greater attention to the Catholic faithful in the country. The
mission is assigned to the Institute of the Incarnate Word. Today
in Tajikistan there are
three parishes dedicated to St. Joseph,
St. Rocco and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus. Four
IIV priests and three nuns of the Institute of the Lord and the Virgin of
Matara and four sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta work in the territory. In
these past 15 years, God has blessed us with some young Tajik vocations and
there are currently three seminarians and three girls who have chosen religious
life.
The
Catholic Church of Tajikistan has existed for about 40 years. The
community began to develop from 1974 onwards and has a more solid structure
with the construction of the first religious buildings in the capital Dushanbe and Kurgan Tubie
in the south of the country. The
first Christians are mostly of German origin from Russia,
Ukraine and Lithuania deported to the country during the Soviet Union era.
Because
of the communist regime, for years the community of Tajikistan was isolated from the
universal Church. They
choose German as the official language of the liturgy, with locals taking the
name of "German
Church".
Despite
the isolation, the Catholics of Tajikistan grew and became one of the most
important and numerous communities of the Soviet Union.
With
the tragic civil war of 1992-1993 most of the Catholics fled the country
together with the citizens of other ethnic groups. For
several years the churches were empty and without priests. The
Catholic community was kept alive through the work of many of the faithful who
chose not to flee. The sisters off the Congregation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta care for their
spiritual and material wellbeing. They are
doing everything to prevent the total disappearance of the community. In
these years priests from Kazakhstan
are sent for long periods to help the few Tajik Catholics. The
presence of the priests allows them to emerge from the isolation of the past. The
Catholic community is now no longer "the German Church",
but is opening up to the world. Today
the population identifies itself as the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church.
* Leader
of the ecclesiastical Sui Iuris mission in Tajikistan
"Sui
Iuris" missions are mission territories which do not form part of any
order, vicariate or apostolic prefecture. Such
sites are governed by an ecclesiastical superior and depend on the parishes and
religious personnel.
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14/04/2022 09:32
28/01/2022 09:36
