European Churches" "
In spite of the harsh legacy of the decades of mass atheism during the Soviet regime (still today over 70% of the 147 million inhabitants declare themselves atheist or non-religious), Russia now seems to be enjoying a religious, as well as a political and economic, revival. The official data speak of an Orthodox presence of 16.3%, and a Moslem presence of 10%; the number of Protestants is estimated at 0.9%, and of Jews at 0.4%. The number of Catholics is even less than that: several hundred thousands, comprising the communities of foreigners present in Russia for various reasons. Yet, the Catholic presence is growing. It’s enough to consult the official site of the Russian Catholic community (w.catholic.net.ru) to realise that, at the level of the mass media for example, there are already various local media, ranging from the official Catholic weekly “Svet Evangelija (Light of the Gospel)” whose editor, Victor Khroul, is also the spokesman of the Russian Episcopal Conference, to the monthly magazine of Russian Caritas, “Samaritan”; from the periodical “Tvoy Blagovestnik (Your Shepherd)”, run by a conventual Franciscan, to the youth magazine “Sviataja Radost (Holy Joy), run by a Salesian father. Even in distant Siberia there is a Catholic paper (the “Siberian Catholic Newspaper”) and a TV channel (” TV Kana”), without counting the presence in the Siberian capital of Novosibirsk of Caritas just as in Moscow and in other cities of the West.
