We are not foreigners

“We are not foreigners in this land”, said the Most Rev, Bronislav Bernackij, Bishop of the region of Odessa-Crimea, in an interview realized by Iryna Ermak and Oleksandr Dobroer for SIR Europe. Odessa-Crimea is the youngest diocese of Ukraine, but its roots can be traced back to the memory of Clement I, martyr of the 2nd century. “Legend – explains Bishop Bernackij – tells of the visit made by two of the greatest Bishops of Rome to this region: Pope Clement I, whose relics are also venerated by the Orthodox in the monastery of St. Clement at Inkerman and in the monastery of Kievo-Pecherska lavra, and Pope Martin I, martyr of the 6th century. Deported to work in the stone quarries of the Crimea, they served the Christian communities of the churches that had not yet been divided”. When did the Roman-Catholic Church first appear in the Crimea?“In the 12th century. It suffered many changes down to the 19th century when, on the basis of the concordat between the Tsar of Russia Mykola I and the Holy See, the diocese of Tiraspol, with its capital at Saratov, was established. The ecclesiastical territory occupied a vast area, stretching from southern Ukraine to the Urals and also comprised the Caucasus. In that period, moreover, the Catholic Church did not have the same rights as the Russian Orthodox Church. Subsequently the diocese of Tiraspol, though maintaining its own integrity, was subdivided into four administrative parts for greater facility of administration. One of these parts had its centre at Odessa”. Does not the subsequent history of the diocese refer just to this city? "In the mid-19th century, at a time when war with the Turks was imminent, Pope Pius IX did not agree that the centre of the diocese should be kept in Odessa. So the bishops moved to Saratov. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian part of the diocese of Tiraspol became the basis for the creation in 2002 of the new diocese of Odessa-Simferopol on the territory of what was now independent Ukraine. Our cathedral of the Assumption is the third church in this city in which the Catholic Church has had an active presence for over 200 years". Another crucial moment was probably the October Revolution…“No, that came with the arrival of the Bolsheviks in Crimea. In 1918, when the Bolsheviks expelled the bishops and priests from Saratov, a seminary was transferred here. In 1943, following Stalin’s decree on the migration of the German-speaking population, all the Germans were deported to the Urals, the Catholic community was dissolved and a church was closed. The Poles and the representatives of other nationalities also suffered greatly. The only remaining parish church – St. Peter’s – was the centre of the Roman Catholic Church for many years. In the times of the tsar, by contrast, there were some 40,000 Polish Catholics at Odessa, as well as Germans, Italians and French; 17,000 Catholics in the parish of St. Clement alone; 15,000 in the cathedral of the Assumption. These were hardly small parishes! Crimea was a universal Church in miniature. After the war, many inhabitants of Zakarpattya and the Western Ukraine migrated to other territories. Others coming from the former Crimea sought refuge there from persecutions”. In Ukraine the Church is growing and is faced by new challenges. How can you tackle them if you lack the necessary priests, churches and financial resources? “When I arrived in this diocese, there were only 18 priests, now we have 50. In this diocese alone I have consecrated 11 priests and currently 10 seminarians are studying here. In almost all the cities we have already built churches. However, we are waiting, for example, for authorization to build a church at Simferopol, where over ten years are needed for the necessary permits. Then there’s the unresolved problem of the restitution of the church at Sebastopol, a building long occupied by a cinema which was finally transferred elsewhere last year. Now our former church is empty. Together with the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Ivan Yurkovich, I have celebrated Mass there. Then the new Commission arrived and declared the building unsafe and hence unusable. We are willing to restore it, but permission to do has not been granted to us”. What other difficulties do you foresee? “Once the Catholic Church had many properties in Odessa: it ran old people’s homes, schools and so forth. All these buildings are now in the hands of private citizens. I recently met the mayor Eduard Hurwitz. He promised me that if we reach an agreement with the management of the shop that now occupies the larger part of our building, the Municipality would find another apartment or real estate that could be developed for the shop. If that works out we could develop various charitable services. For years we have been trying to obtain the return of our former seminary, which was occupied by the institute of coordination of scientific research in Odessa (OSRIC). I’ve also met the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Timoshenko. All of them make promises, but none does anything to restore what was expropriated from the Churches”.