www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News New Greek Catholic Exarchate in Russia

I wonder if anyone had realized that the new Archepiscopal Exarchate Of Krym will be in Russia once Crimea is annexed. Putin has unwittingly done what Rome had refused to do, put a Greek Catholic jurisdiction in Russia.

Hey, you're right!

That would make two Greek Catholic exarchates in Russia. The first one, formed in 1917 with Blessed Leonid Feodorov as first exarch, still exists although vacant.

Unfortunately, I see a sad parallel. As Russian Greek Catholics began to experience persecution shortly after the exarchate was erected, Ukrainian Catholics in this new exarchate are also undergoing the same. Link. [ncregister.com] Link 2. [catholicnews.com]

Holy Martyr Leonid, pray for Ukraine and Russia!

Is Exarch Leonty's jurisdiction vacant or has it been subsumed under Bishop Werth's omophorion?

It hasn't been officially suppressed, but Bishop Werth is ordinary for Greek Catholics in Russia.

There has been nothing to suggest that the exarchial jurisdiction remains other than sede vacante.

All official existing ordinariates for faithful of Churches sui iuris of the Eastern and Oriental Rites are headed by Latin hierarchs - the faithful are entrusted to the care of an Ordinary sui alienos, in the absence of a jurisdiction of their own Church. Thus, the Ordinariates are incapable of subsuming any Eastern or Oriental canonical jurisdiction as, by their nature, they are mere 'caretaker' jurisdictions.

Of interesting note, while Bishop Werth is the Ordinary in personam for Greek-Catholics in Russia, no Ordinariate jurisdiction has ever been proclaimed or erected, unless in peccatore. The Annuario Pontificio lists only eight Ordinariates for faithful of the Oriental Rites - none of those is Russia.

I doubt that we will ever see Moscow or Harbin suppressed. That they continue to exist is Rome's sole public, though subtle, symbolic exercise of a 'right' to such. At the same time, its failure to publicly proclaim or canonically erect an ordinariate is its acquiescence to the reality of assuring that Catholicism is not banned outright. Along that same line, appointing an Ordinary was a less-than-subtle way of assuring that the upstart Russian Greek-Catholics not have an excuse to name a locum tenens or protosynchellus to head up the vacant exarchate and ruffle civil or ecclesiastical feathers.

Many years,

Neil

\\no Ordinariate jurisdiction has ever been proclaimed or erected, unless in peccatore.\\

An ordinary "in a sinner"?

I think you mean "in pectore", not "peccatore".

You are correct - too late an hour, too little coffee - and I fear that Fathers John Kelly, SJ and Paul Ruttle, SJ, both of blessed memory, are headed to my home at this very moment to beat on my head with dictionaries.

Many years,

Neil

A photo of His Excellency:
[Linked Image]

Here is the official website for Byzantine Rite Catholics in Russia [rkcvo.ru].

Photos and a video [sibcatholic.ru] of the ordination of a Russian Byzantine Catholic (a convert from Russian Orthodoxy) to the priesthood in November 2011.

May the work of Blessed Leonid Feodorov bear much fruit.

In fact the Russian-Greek Catholic clergy elected Fr. Sergei Golovanov their exarch but Rome ignored this act and appointed Vladyko Joseph (Werth) instead. One might speculate as to Fr. Sergei's unacceptability to Rome: that he was elected by his fellow clergy? that he is married with children? that this would stymie the Vatican's by-now-wholly discredited ostpolitik? that there is something 'negative' in Fr. Sergei's dossier? In any event, so much for the Eastern Churches' being duty bound to govern themselves!

Father, it's probably part our theology and ecumenical strategy and part Realpolitik. We're not soliciting individual conversions from the Orthodox; we're working on corporate reunion. We only passively accept individual and group (unia) conversions. Making an ex-Orthodox Russian (an ex-Orthodox priest?) the exarch in Russia would send the wrong message. That and we're guests in a strong, authoritarian Orthodox country. The whole Catholic Church in Russia is extremely polite to the Orthodox and low-profile.

Yet, the esteemed Archbishop Kallistos is the former Anglican Timothy Ware and serves in England -- where the Anglican is the Established Church. Of course, there's a big difference between the British and Russian ethos! My point, though, is that the Russian-Greek Catholic clergy elected him! He wasn't appointed by Rome. Isn't it about time the Russian Church learned the meaning of the axiom "Vox populi -- vox Dei."? Not vox Papae, not vox Putini: vox POPULI! (You know, like in Crimea!, God save the mark!) In that sense, the Church is a democracy when the pleroma animated by the Holy Spirit acts, she is infallibly guided. But what do I know?!

Surely Father, the problem with Fr Sergei Golovanov was that he was married !

It has always been my understanding that the Episcopate came from the ranks of celibate /monastic ranks

I know that since the fall of the USSR it seems that, in Russia, Russian Catholics and Ukrainian Catholics have been thrown under the bus, but again, the Catholic big picture is corporate reunion. The inconveniences to Eastern Catholics in Russia are an offering towards that end.

While not the norm, it is not uncommon for widowed priests to become Orthodox bishops.

I suspect that Young Fogey is correct. Don't forget that Russian Byzantine Catholics are extremely small in number and of all the Orthodox, the Russians have an unnatural fear of, and ignorance about Eastern Catholicism. Since there are approximately 150,000 Roman Catholics in Russia, it would seem the math influences Vatican policy.

An exarch need not be a bishop. Rome allows married priests to be ordinaries for the Anglican Use ordinariates.