The Future of the Catholic Church in Russia
The resignation of Archbishop Paolo Pezzi of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow marks a delicate transition for Russia’s Catholic community, a process that will also affect relations with Russian authorities and the Orthodox Patriarchate. Citing health reasons that currently make it impossible for him to administer the large diocese, the prelate, who has led the local Church since 2007, calls for unity. Now succession becomes a major issue.
On 2 May, the Vatican announced the resignation of the Archbishop of the Mother of God at Moscow, 65-year-old Paolo (Pavel) Pezzi, who has held the post since September 2007. He left the position of administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis to the auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, 53-year-old Russian Conventual Friar Nikolai Dubinin, titular of Aquae in Byzacena, who has been overseeing the northern sector of the vast diocesan territory, with its seat in St Petersburg, since 2020.
This is an unexpected change, which raises several questions about the future of the whole Catholic Church in Russia, given that the Archbishop of Moscow is the most important and significant figure in an ecclesiastical hierarchy that also includes three other dioceses: Saratov in southern European Russia and two in Siberia, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk.
Despite Archbishop Pezzi’s relatively young age, canonical age for retirement is 75, his resignation was expected to some extent given the state of his health. In fact, two years ago, he underwent fairly complex surgery.
For many years, the prelate has been unable to sustain the pace of such demanding service, not only due to the vast territory of nearly 80 parishes, scattered as far as the enclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania, but also for other reasons both internal and external to the lives of Russian Catholics.
Pezzi himself mentioned the background in his homily at Mass last Saturday, right after the announcement of his resignation, which the Holy Father had accepted. “Let’s be clear,” he said, “to avoid conspiracy theories and false rumours, I wish to declare that I have requested my resignation due to my health, which does not allow me to properly administer this wonderful and beloved diocese."
For the time being, the archbishop remains in Moscow at the Curia, at the disposal of "dear Bishop Dubinin" for any needs deemed important and useful. “From now on, I will no longer be mentioned in the Eucharistic prayer, but this does not mean that you should not pray for me, as you have done in nearly 19 years of my ministry."
After speaking about his personal situation, the archbishop expressed the intention of the Holy Mass as "prayer for unity and reconciliation in our Church."
In fact, tensions and divisions exist among Russian Catholics, so much so that the archbishop noted that “in our difficult conditions, the devil is very active, spreading conflict, especially in families, but also in communities where different individuals and groups are beginning to intensely clash."
He admitted that "it is possible and indeed desirable to have different opinions, even those in disagreement with the bishop's decisions, which is why we are increasingly applying the synodal method," but when decisions are reached, "they must be supported.”
The outgoing bishop asked for forgiveness for all his errors and sins, as well as for any offences, "even though I don't remember offending anyone," adding that "I have long since forgiven those who offended me."
Over the years, the prelate has been the subject of sometimes outrageous criticism, particularly over his management of the buildings of the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul in Moscow, which was returned to the Catholic Church a few years ago. A particularly painful aspect of Bishop Pezzi's ministry has been the high number of priests who left the local clergy.
Earlier this year, the prelate was also heavily criticised for not signing the appeal of the Interfaith Consultative Committee of Russia in Defence of Persecuted Christians in Ukraine, effectively a pro-Moscow Patriarchate declaration on interreligious conflicts in the country invaded by Russian armies.
On that occasion, the Vicar General of Moscow, Father Kirill Gorbunov, explained that Archbishop Pezzi "expresses his closeness to the positions expressed in the appeal, but according to the canonical provisions of the Catholic Church, he does not have jurisdiction to make any official statements regarding other countries”. Russia's top government officials did not likely appreciate this stance.
Now, in addition to his succession, the Catholic Church will also have to deal with its relationship with Russian civil and ecclesiastical leaders, starting with President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev).
The end of Pezzi's term marks the conclusion of an important phase in the renaissance of the Catholic Church in the post-Soviet era, which can be divided into two periods: the reconstruction and reopening of structures closed after the revolution, led from 1991 to 2007 by Belarusian Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz (now retired in Minsk), and the conservation and defence of what was rebuilt, a task undertaken for nearly 20 by the Italian Paolo Pezzi.
The "renaissance" phase unfolded during the rather turbulent years of Boris Yeltsin's presidency, thanks to highly open and permissive legislation on freedom of worship and religious expression between 1990 (still under Gorbachev) and 1997, when the law was changed to reimpose Orthodoxy as the state religion and limit the rights of all other denominations.
In those years, nearly 300 Catholic communities were reopened throughout the Russian Federation, including official parishes, chapels, and convents, to serve a Catholic community estimated at one million, including Russian citizens with family ties to Catholicism.
In reality, far fewer attend services and participate in spiritual, cultural, and social activities, but there are no credible statistics to determine their number.
Catholics in Russia include many immigrants from countries friendly to Russia since Soviet times, from Africa and Latin America, as well as Asia, like the Philippines and India, not to mention Armenian Catholics who arrived in the 1990s following various conflicts in the Caucasus.
A significant component of the community is made up of ethnic Russians who, like Bishop Nikolai Dubinin, do not have Catholic roots except way back in time, but who have approached Latin Rite Catholicism during the years of religious freedom for a variety of cultural and spiritual reasons, from Catholic outreach in society to the beauty of the sound of the organ and other musical instruments, which are not permitted in Orthodox liturgies.
Catholic priests serving the communities are mostly foreign, except for a few priests ordained in underground conditions during the Soviet years, and a generation of new ministers ordained since 1999, the year that saw the completion of the first preparatory phase of the St Petersburg Seminary, which reopened in 1994. Dubinin himself is part of this first group, and was ordained in 2000 after joining the Conventual Friars.
The seminary is now an institute of religious studies, open to seminarians, not very many, as well as lay people. This is one of the last decisions made by Archbishop Pezzi, which earned him further criticism because it appeared to mark the closure of the institute to train priests.
Archbishop Pezzi was the rector of the seminary between 2003 and 2007 before his appointment as archbishop, after his return to Russia, where he had already served, in Novosibirsk in the 1990s.
Another succession could take place in the latter, Siberia's most important city, seat of the Diocese of the Transfiguration,[*] which has been run since 1991 by Bishop Joseph Werth, born in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in 1952, and thus not far from retirement age.
Bishop Werth had ministered in the city of Marks, a city on the Volga, during the final years of the Soviet Union, serving the local community of fellow ethnic Germans, who were tolerated by the authorities due to their specific ethno-territorial character.
He was then persuaded to become bishop of Novosibirsk, to which he also added the post of administrator of Greek Catholics in Russia, a community now closely monitored by Russian authorities since it is largely made up of Ukrainians.
Two years ago, Werth was joined by an auxiliary bishop, 50-year-old Father Stephan Lipke, a German Jesuit who moved to Russia from Essen in 2011, becoming the rector of the St. Thomas Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History in Moscow.
The Jesuits played an important role in rebuilding the Church in central Siberia, and Bishop Werth is a member of the Society of Jesus.
Now the question is whether the time has come to appoint a Russian bishop in Moscow, leaving the German bishop in Siberia, or vice versa, a choice between having an ethnic Russian lead Moscow's Catholics, a sign that Russians can become Catholic, or bringing an ethnic German to the capital, reinforcing the idea that Catholics do not belong to the dominant ethnic group, which remains exclusively associated with Orthodoxy.
The future of Catholics in Russia is visibly complicated by a number of cultural and ideological issues, plus the tensions everyone has experienced due to the endless war with the Ukrainians and the Western world, of which the Catholic Church is the main symbolic institution.
Despite being a period of “conservation”, Bishop Pezzi's time saw Catholic communities grow, in silence and in communion even among the various groups whose reconciliation the archbishop has urged, including those for and against the war.
The outgoing bishop's last pastoral visit took place recently in Nizhny Novgorod, one of Russia's foremost cities, where the original Catholic church was returned not long ago, and which will now be entirely restored, a sign of hope for Russia’s substantial Catholic community, and for the possible reconciliation between East and West, now and in the future.
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[*] In Russia, Catholic dioceses are not named after cities to avoid conflicts with the Orthodox Church.
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25/10/2021 09:31
