www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Russian Catholic Church - News - Part II

See my earlier post.

The following items have been provided by Professor Delaney.

I am in regular contact with Fr Golovanov in Novosibirsk, and occasionally in touch with two other Greek Catholic priests in Moscow, like Fr Nikolenko. As well as my contacts with them, I follow the news there regularly on several sites.

After a slow start, a lot has happened since the appointment of Bishop Joseph Werth as Ordinary. There are a number of new priests and parishes and a new structure. In fact, on the official website, they published a Handbook of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church in 2007, listing the parishes and communities, and I translated it into English for them. The translation is now on their website too.

There are now 18 Byzantine priests working in Russia. About half are Russian, and the rest Ukrainian, and some are biritual, a necessity because of the shortage of priests. In Novokuznetsk lovely new Byzantine Catholic church was recently constructed and consecrated, the first such for centuries in Russia. In fact, in the Kuzzbass region in Siberia, where this parish is located, the church is doing particularly well.

Unfortunately, so as to avoid the tiresome charges of prosyletism from the ROC, recently the Byzantine Church in Russia has been emphasizing that it is there only for the descendants of Ukrainian Catholics, who live in Russia, mostly as a result of the deportations to Siberia ordered by Stalin. A number of parishes are actually Ukrainian in rite, while others follow the Russian Slavonic rite. This Ukrainian policy has left the Russian priests and parishes feeling rather left out. However, this, I think, is just a temporary and defensive posture by the Church, for not only are there Russian parishes in the church, but, as the article I sent points out, the younger descendants of the Ukrainian deportees feel more Russian than Ukrainian. With time, the Church will become more Russian.


There are in fact 2 Byzantine candidates, both Russians, studying for the priesthood in Russia, but they unfortuately are at the Latin-rite seminary in St Petersburg, where they are being thoroughly latinized, it seems. They would be better off in a Greek-Catholic seminary in Ukraine, or even in the Russicum. Having a Latin-rite Ordinary for Byzantne Catholics in Russia is better than nothing, but far from ideal, for he seems to be insensitive to such problems.

Fr Golovanov has been away from Omsk for 2 years, and his replacement is Fr Andrei Startsev, a young Argentinian priest who is of Russian origin. I doubt that he speaks any English.
Fr Golovanov is now the archivist for the Latin-rite diocese of Novosibirsk and pastor of the small Byzantine-Catholic community there. They have a charming chapel in the basement of the Latin-rite cathedral. Again this is better than nothing, but it gives the wrong message to the Orthodox, that the Byzantine Catholics are an appendage of the Latin-Catholics. Unfortunately, this is how Bishop Werth sees them too.

Fr Golovanov is also doing his PhD in history at the university in Novosibirsk.

Edmac

Whatever happened to Fr. Andrei (Udovenko) who had the Sts. Peter and Andrew community that gathered in the Missionaries of Charity chapel?

Certainly Metropolitan Andrey allowed and blessed Exarch Blessed Leonid to celebrate according to the full Russian Nikonian or pre-Nikonian forms - both are allowed in the acta of the 1917 Russian Greek Catholic Synod which should technically still be in effect, as neither Rome or the Patriarch has abrogated any of the provisions.

There is another set of Nikonian service books which were approved and published in Rome (the so-called "vulgata") that is distinct from the "Ruthenian Rescension" which presumably the more Ukrainian parishes would use.

Frpm Prof.Delany:

In answer to Diak's question on ByzCath Forum about Fr Andrei Udovenko, Fr Andrei is still working in his parish and he is now the Dean of the Byzantine Catholic communities within the Latin diocese of Moscow.

What is the URL of the website?

www.rkcvo.ru [rkcvo.ru]

In Russian only (as far as I could see).

Edmac

Some further items:

Fr Startsev: He is member of a religious community from Argentina, and there is a group of Argentinian Byzantine nuns in Omsk too of a sister community.

The new parish priest in Paris, who replaced Fr Dupire, is also an Argentinian. He had been assisting Fr Dupire for some time before the latter's death, and was obviously being groomed for the succession. When I first saw him, he was working with Fr Dupire.

According to Fr Golovanov, there are no Byzantine Catholic families that descend from the original group. Some present members had contact with Mother Ana Abrikosova's brave nuns and were even converted by them, so there is a kind of spiritual succession. Some of the Greek Catholics, apparently, eventually joined the Romans, and were absorbed.

Fr Andrei Udovenko is still working in his parish and he is now the Dean of the Byzantine Catholic communities within the Latin diocese of Moscow.

I find that I was wrong about the number of Byzantine Catholic priests working in Russia in 2008. At one point, there were indeed 18; but that was a year or two ago. However, at present there are 14 active priests to my knowledge. Three foreign priests - a Ukrainian, a Slovak and an American* - have returned home, and one Russian priest is not active at the moment.
The majority of the remaining priests are now Russian, with at least 3 Ukrainians and one Argentinian.
But I must check this further.

[*This was Fr. Michael Desjardins SJ of the Maryland Province of the Society who was in charge
of their novices in Novisikersk].

via Edmac