"A railway station is my ” “Curia"” “

After the Milanese Father Stefano Caprio (11 April), the bishop of Polish origin Jerzy Mazur (19 April) and the Czech priest Stanislaw Krainac (10 August), two other Polish priests, Edward Maskiewicz and Jaroslav Wisnieswski, have been stopped at the Russian frontier and prevented from re-entering the country in recent days. So the list of the expulsion of Catholic priests from Russia is growing longer. The decisions to expel them have aroused the deep concern of the Holy See, which, through its spokesman Navarro-Valls in a briefing on 10 September, has made it known that “the matter is so grave that there are already those who are speaking of an actual persecution. Even graver is the fact that the Holy See has not yet received any official explanations for the reasons supposedly at the basis of these expulsions. The Holy See will strive to resolve the problem through diplomatic channels”. We put some questions to Bishop Jerzy Mazur of the Siberian diocese of Irkutsk, who has been living in Poland since April, following his expulsion from Russia. What do you think of these new expulsions? “Preventing priests from performing their mission of being heralds of Christ is a sign of the lack of religious tolerance. The words of Vatican spokesman Navarro-Valls can be endorsed: ‘the matter is so grave that there are already those who are speaking of an actual persecution. Even graver is the fact that the Holy See has not yet received any official explanations for the reasons supposedly at the basis of these expulsions'”. Does Moscow’s adoption of provisions against Catholic priests risk provoking a political crisis? “It’s not the Orthodox Church, but the State, that is denying the re-entry of our fellow priests. As far as I’m concerned, I can do nothing but invite prayer for the reconciliation and unity of all Christians. We need to proceed along the path of dialogue. Unity is lacking and it’s also for this reason that these difficulties have arisen. Prayer will help us to overcome them”. But prayer must be accompanied by diplomatic action… “Of course. And this is also the sense of the approach made by the apostolic nunciature in Moscow to the Russian foreign ministry on the recent case of the Polish religious Edward Mackiewicz, whose visa was cancelled, effectively preventing him from returning to Russia. The same happened to another priest Jaroslav Wisniewski. We still await an explanation why these decisions were taken”. After your expulsion from Russia, how are you pursuing the pastoral mission in your Siberian diocese of Irkutsk? “With difficulty, but also with patience and tenacity. My diocese is huge: it’s 28 times the size of Italy! The old and new technologies, such as the telephone and electronic mail, however useful in maintaining contacts and communicating, can never compensate for the lack of human presence. Here, from Poland, where I now live, I can neither celebrate mass nor administer the sacraments. The presence in the midst of the people, and at the side of priests and religious, is important”. How have the faithful reacted to your expulsion? “With fear but also with great hope for the future. I try to meet with the Polish and Slovak priests of my diocese whenever they come home on leave or for the renewal of their residence permits. Our meetings take place in railway stations, in airports. These places have become my Curia”. Don’t you fear that permission to re-enter Russia will be refused to these priests too? “Of course I do. But we must never lose hope and patience. We need to trust in Jesus, that he may inspire the right steps in diplomacy to resolve these difficulties and lead us with faith to the paths of dialogue and reciprocal understanding with our Orthodox brothers”. Daniele Rocchi