Novosibirsk (Fides Service) - On Sunday June 27 in the Catholic diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk, the local Catholic Bishop, Bishop Joseph Werth, had the joy of ordaining two local men as priests to serve the small Catholic community in this vast region of Western Siberia. The new was reported by the German branch of the Catholic aid agency of Pontifical right, Aid to the Church in Need” (ACN).
“My diocese has an area of 4 million square kilometres and a community of about 50,000 baptised Catholics of whom 10,000 are practising” the Bishop explained underlining that it is ‘extremely difficult’ to provide the faithful with pastoral care in such a vast territory. Most of the Catholics are not Russian born, they are of Polish, German or Lithuanian origin. “Moreover, many of the 48 priests serving in the diocese are also of foreign origin coming from Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Italy and as far away as the United States.”
Bishop Werth, himself from Kazakhstan, says it is not easy to obtain residence permits for missionaries: “there are restrictions and the paper work is endless ” he said. After 70 years of atheism under Communist dictatorship in the former Soviet Union, one of the priorities for this Catholic diocese, created only two years ago as one of three suffragan dioceses of Mother Of God archdiocese in Moscow, is to build church structures which are non existent. (MS) (Agenzia Fides, 28/6/2004 - 16 righe, 202 parole)