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Catholic World News News Feature

Russian State Officials, Orthodox Oppose Catholics In Belgorod March 02, 2000

MOSCOW (CWNews.com/Keston) - In January, the justice administration in Russia's Belgorod region once again refused registration to the region's only Catholic parish, with the backing of the Russian Orthodox Church as officials openly expressed hostility to Catholics and other religious minorities, with one even declaring that there is "no room" for them in the region.

Father Krzysztof Kempa, pastor of the Belgorod Catholic parish, said this week the authorities do not want to register the parish or even accept the relevant documents from them because they are well aware that the Catholic community will demand the return of their church building that the authorities have transferred to the ownership of the Orthodox Church's Moscow Patriarchate's Belgorod diocese.

The authorities have held out against registration of a Catholic parish in Belgorod since 1997. The priest of the parish at the time, Father Jozef Guncaga, said several times in 1998 and 1999 that even then the local Orthodox bishop, Metropolitan Ioann Popov had publicly demanded that the existence of a Catholic parish be forbidden. Father Guncaga was arrested in 1998 after an outdoor Mass in Belgorod in front of the Catholic church building and was accused of organizing unauthorized meetings.

Father Kempa received a similar response to his approaches to Metropolitan Ioann. He appealed in person to the bishop not to hinder the registration of the parish, but Metropolitan Ioann, according to Father Kempa, declared categorically that there would be no Catholic parish in Belgorod and "mocked" his persistence.

On Tuesday, the head of the department of religious affairs in the administration of Belgorod region, Aleksei Lushchenko, confirmed that the Catholic church building was transferred simply for the needs of the diocese. Asked whether the Catholics have any right to this building, Lushchenko said the Catholics could now obtain the church building only by taking legal action -- if, of course, the community came through the official registration process.

Lushchenko explained that the parish had been refused registration because of "several infringements of protocol" in the application. However, a source in the department said the refusal was in reality linked to the Orthodox diocese's unwillingness to return the church to them.

Lushchenko spelled out the religious policy of the Belgorod regional authorities: "The Orthodox Church is our traditional church, and therefore we will work together with it and we will cooperate in all things. We must help the Russian Orthodox Church so that the West does not fill the spiritual vacuum, since the idea of the separation of Church and state is in fact a sham."