” “Further sufferings for Catholics” “

“An urgent request for help” to the international community and to all “men of good will” to do all in their power to “stop the violation of religious liberties and human rights” in Russia. The appeal is made by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Moscow, president of the Russian Episcopal Conference, a few days after the withdrawal of the visa from a further two priests. They are the Polish priests Edward Maskiewicz and Jaroslav Wisnieswski, stopped on the Russian frontier on 10 September and deprived of the necessary authorization to remain in the country (cf. SirEurope no.32 of 12 September 2002). The list of the expulsion of Catholic priests from Russia is thus growing longer, following the expulsion of the Milanese priest Stefano Caprio (11 April), the bishop of Polish origin Jerzy Mazur (19 April) and the Czech priest Stanislaw Krainac (10 August). “We cannot ignore – writes Archbishop Kondrusiewicz – the plight of the Catholic Church in Russia, which is now being subjected to new trials after having supported the cruel persecutions of the twentieth century which almost completely destroyed it and after a decade of arduous reconstruction”. A review of the situation. Relations between Moscow and Rome deteriorated after the decision by the Holy See, communicated in a note of 11 February, to raise to the status of dioceses the 4 apostolic administrattions that had hitherto existed in the territory of the Russian Federation. The decision provoked a stern reaction from the Patriarchate of Moscow. In a letter to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Christians, Metropolitan Kirill stressed that the decision was taken by the Holy See “in secret and without any prior discussion with the sister Church”. The first expulsion followed on 11 April: the Russian authorities detained and withdrew the visa from the Milanese priest Stefano Caprio, preventing him from re-entering Russia. On 19 April it was the turn of the bishop of Irkutsk (Siberia), Msgr. Jerzy Mazur. At this point, the Vatican decided to intervene and on 8 May John Paul II wrote to Russian president Vladimir Putin asking him for a personal intervention in favour of the bishop. The reply came only two months later: on 15 July, Putin wrote to the Pope, explaining that no anti-Catholic campaign was in progress in Russia. But the expulsions did not cease: on 10 August Father Stanislav Krainac (a religious of Czech origin) was expelled, and on 10 September the same fate was meted out to two Polish priests. Moscow’s directives not only penalize the Catholic Church: the Dalai Lama too was refused permission to enter Russia and on 12 September a Swedish Protestant missionary, Leo Martesson, was forcibly repatriated after 9 years’ work in Moscow. “Who’ll be the next?”. “The question naturally arises: who’ll be next?” So writes Archbishop Kondrusiewicz in his recent appeal. And in an interview granted to the Vatican press agency Fides, he explains: “What worries me most is that we don’t know the reason for these expulsions: if we knew what mistakes we had made we could try to correct them! But never, in my many conversations with politicians and authorities, have I succeeded in understanding, in knowing what the reason is”. The Archbishop of Moscow is especially concerned by the fact that “85% of our priests are foreigners” and hence subject to expulsion. The Kremlin’s response and Italy’s solidarity. This time, the appeal of Archbishop Kondrusiewicz elicited an almost immediate response on the part of the Kremlin which called the expulsions of Bishop Mazur and the other Catholic priests from Russia “not unjustified”. In a statement to the Interfax agency, the vice-president of Russia’s department of internal affairs Serghiei Abramov urged, however, that the situation “be not unduly dramatized”, maintaining that the expulsions do not constitute “an attack” against the Catholic Church, but fall within a programme of passport control that Russia “has generally reinforced” in recent times. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, has also intervened in favour of the expelled priests: opening the work of the permanent Council on Monday 16 September, he asked that “these provisions be revoked as soon as possible”. Maria Chiara Biagioni