Proces odrodzenia Kościoła katolickiego na Syberii w latach 1991-1998

Abstract

In the multinational and Orthodox Russian Empire Catholics were scarce and they inhabited mainly the European part of the country. Their presence in Siberia was a result of persecution and exile imposed in the 19th c. by tsar's authorities and in the 20th c. by the communist regime. At the close of the 20th c. the number of Catholics exceeded one million (about 2.5% of the Siberian population). The revival of organisational structures of the Catholic Church, which was suppressed in 1936, began in 1991 and showed two mainstream tendencies: a spontaneous one initiated by the faithful and an institutional one directed by Bishop Joseph Verth. Until 1998 there came into being: 84 parishes, 177 communities and 46 places of worship (churches and chapels). The revival of Catholicism revealed an extremely wide range of pastoral problems: hard geographical and climactic conditions in the region, communist mentality of the community, sociological conditions of the revival, multiplicity of cultures and nations, relation to the Orthodox Church. The revival of the Catholic Church in Siberia, inside the Orthodox Church as it were, has a specific dimension in the aspect of ecumenical dialogue. It presents ecumenism with new challenges and helps better understand its essence.