Tallinn (Fides Service) - Mgr Philippe Jourdan, appointed Apostolic Administrator of Estonia in March this year by Pope John Paul II of venerated memory, was ordained a bishop on 10 September in Tallinn by papal nuncio Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen, with Bishop Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei and Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Mother of God Catholic archdiocese in Moscow. Personalities at the ordination Mass included the president of Estonia and government ministers as well as cardinals and bishops from Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and the United States and representatives of various German bodies, the Greek-Catholic Church of Ukraine and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of France.
Bishop Jourdan, a member of the Prelature of Opus Dei, is the only Catholic Bishop in this country which today is mainly Christian Lutheran and Orthodox but still proud of the title ‘Land of Mary’ given by Pope Innocent II in 1215. In fact Catholicism was introduced here by German crusaders in the 13th century. Lutheran penetration was general in the Reformation period and Russian Orthodox influence was strong from the early 18th century until 1917 when the country obtained independence. Estonians strongly opposed Soviet rule. Many of them were deported to Siberia. Estonia has a population of about 1.5 million mostly of Russian and Ukrainian origin and is a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004.
Bishop Jourdan is Tallinn’s first Catholic Bishop in since 1942 the year in which Bishop Eduard Profittlich, the first Catholic Bishop appointed after the Lutheran reform by Pius XI in 1936, died a martyr in a Soviet concentration camp in Kirov, Siberia.
Bishop Philippe Jourdan was born on 30 august 1960 at Dax, in France. In 1983 he obtained a degree in engineering at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in France; in 1987 he studied for a doctorate in philosophy Santa Croce university in Rome. He was ordained a priest on 20 August 1988 for the Prelature Santa Croce and Opus Dei. He has been: 1988 chaplain at Aldeafuente College in Madrid; 1989 -1993 Chaplain at Centre Culturel Garnelles, Paris; 1992 - 1995 in charge of pastoral animation in student residences in Paris, pastoral work in parishes and in 1989-1995, he taught philosophy.
He has been in Estonia since 1996. Until now he was vicar general of the Apostolic Administration of Estonia. From 1999-2001 he was been parish priest of Tallinn’s Catholic cathedral dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. In 1997 he was appointed Catholic representative at the Council of Churches of Estonia, an ecumenical institution of which he has been vice president since March 2004. (AP) (23/9/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:32; Parole:395)