Apostolic administrations are a relatively new concept. They are a creation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. This 1983 concept was a development of the 'apostolic administrator' as presented by the 1917 Code. Until 1983 an Apostolic Administrator was seen as one who administrates a diocese in the name of the Pope. In instances where the local diocesan bishop was not capable of governing his diocese for a long period of time, and the duties to be fulfilled were more demanding than the office of a vicar general (the bishop's second in charge) the Pope could appoint an apostolic administrator who would govern the diocese, not as diocesan bishop but rather on behalf of the Pope. In 1983 the Church developed the idea of an 'Apostolic Administrator' a step further, by allowing for the creation of 'Apostolic Administrations' by the Pope. The Church sometimes sees that there is a need for some type of ecclesial structure and order, in areas where there are Catholic communities, but where there are important reasons for not establishing dioceses. Such reasons can be political instability, lack of any internal structures and ecumenical concerns.

Pope John Paul II has established four Roman Catholic apostolic administrations in Russia.[1]

Apostolic Administration for Northern European Russia in Moscow:

This Administration was established in April 1991, with Bishop Kondrusiewicz appointed as Apostolic Administrator. The Bishop in Moscow has the title of Archbishop, with all of Russia, Kazakhstan, and the other Asian successor states in his province.

Apostolic Administration for Southern European Russia in Saratov:

This Administration was established in April, 1991. Bishop Clemens Pickel was appointed as Apostolic Administrator.

Apostolic Administration for Asian Russia in Novosibirsk:

Bishop Joseph Werth, S.J., D.D.[2] was consecrated on April 13, 1991, and appointed Apostolic Administrator of Novosibirsk in April of that year. The Apostolic Administration of Novosibirsk is geographically the largest in the world. Before the establishment of the Apostolic Administration for Eastern Russia, the Administration of Asian Russia was well over twice the size of the 48 contiguous United States (which have 193 dioceses). It spanned 9 time zones,[3] and covered a total area of over 5 million square miles.[4] Catholics of the Russian Far East are scattered and include ethnic Poles, Lithuanians, Koreans, Ukrainians, Russians, and Armenians.[5] At the time of the Pastoral Conference in October 1994, there were 53 priests in the diocese.[6] At that time, there were also about 200 parishes in the diocese. The border between the Administration of Northern European Russia and that of Asian Russia is the Ural Mountains. The church in Novosibirsk was the first to re-open after the collapse of communism. It reopened for Holy Mass on January 1, 1994 and the first Mass Bishop Werth prayed there was on June 26, 1994. Most Catholic Church buildings in Eastern Russia are still standing because the Catholic people were destroyed, but the churches were kept and converted for secular use.

Apostolic Administration for Eastern Russia in Irkustk

This, the youngest of the Russian Apostolic Administrations, was established in May 1998, with Bishop Jerzy Mazur[7] appointed Apostolic Administrator. This is the Administration that contains the Vladivostok Deanery.

Adopt a Birth

Adopt-A-Birth is a program where a woman who comes into our crisis center is offered the funds to deliver her baby rather than seek an abortion. The current amount is $20, which pays for a packet that CARITAS gives her to take to the hospital for delivery. It consists of sutures, cleansing preparations, anesthetic, antibiotics, soap, etc. The hospitals don�t have it and the woman usually can�t find the extra money. We also offer clothes, adoption, job skills, abuse support, AA and Al-anon. Contact point is Mary Mother of God Mission Society located in St. Paul, MN (address listed under names and addresses in this document).

Congratulations to Mr. George Riess and our benefactors who have donated to our "Adopt-a-Birth" program! More than 300 Russian children have been saved from abortion and helped to have a healthy birth through this program which was George's brainchild. Many more children have been saved by our Women's Support Centers, but the "Adopt-a-Birth" program is key for Russian women who consider abortion just because they can't afford the expenses of giving birth (Abortions are nearly free!)[8]

Adoption

Adoptions have started with Caritas Primorye (our Catholic Charities in Russia) and Catholic Charities U.S.A. The Ashville, N.C. office is handling the adoptions for the American side. Call 1-888-990-4199, request to speak to Carol or Michelle. Home study and follow up are done in your area.

Archbishop Francis T. Hurley

His Grace Francis T. Hurley, Archbishop Emeritus of Anchorage, made his first visit to Magadan, Russia in 1988. He celebrated the first known public Mass there on Christmas of 1989. On January 3, 1991 the religious community of the Catholic Christians was granted a certificate of registration as a religious community in Magadan. On January 4, 1991, Archbishop Hurley, then on his fourth visit to Magadan, gathered the twelve people who had petitioned for certification. They selected the parish name, Church of the Nativity of Jesus. Archbishop Hurley sent a notice of this action to His Holiness Pope John Paul II. On January 11, 1991, the Holy Father �having learned of the formal registration of the Catholic Community of Magadan graciously imparts his apostolic blessing upon the faithful of Magadan and upon your Excellency as a sign of paternal care.� (Signed) Archbishop Angelo Sodano, Pro-Secretariat of State. Father Austin Mohrbacher of Passaic, New Jersey was assigned as the first pastor of the Church of the Nativity of Jesus in June 1991. September 1994, Father Michael Shields of Anchorage, Alaska, was assigned to serve in Magadan. September 1996, Father David Means of St. Louis, Missouri was assigned to serve in Magadan. Archbishop Francis T. Hurley, in service to the Russian Bishop of Novosibirsk, oversees and financially supports the Catholic missionary work of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia. The webpage of the Church of the Nativity of Jesus in Magadan can be accessed of our website. Archbishop Hurley retired from the active care of Anchorage in 2001.

Arsenev, City of

Arsenev, Parish in

The parish of Annunciation in Arsenev was named in honor of the parish of Annunciation in Washington, DC. The Parish was founded on Feb 21, 1999. It currently only has a 3 room apartment for its 30 Parishioners. Masses are celebrated in the Public High School.

Fr. Christian Labanovsky, OSF was installed as the pastor on April 6 during the parish celebration of Arsenyev�s parish feast day of the Annunciation. Fr. Myron as Dean of the Vladivostok Deanery installed Fr. Christian.[9]

Autumn Anointing of The Sick

The anointing of the elderly and sick of the parish at Vladivostok took place this year on September 29. Many of the elderly simply can�t get to the church in the wintertime because of the conditions in which they live. The anointing takes on even greater meaning for them. This year the first snow was on October 21. Parts of the city never have the snow plowed all winter. After the Mass there was a treat and tea for the elderly and the opportunity for a few minutes of personal talk with the pastor and to visit with others.[10]

Bishop Karol Slivovsky (1848-1933)

Toward the end of the 19^th century, thousands of Poles, Lithuanians, and Byelorussians were exiled to penal labor camps in Siberia and the Far East for their participation in nationalistic revolts. Then many Poles were drafted into military service and military chaplains were then needed. The first Catholic priest arrived in 1867 to serve the region, living first at Nikolaevsk-na-Amur, then in Vladivostok. A small wooden church and rectory were built, the church later being destroyed by fire. Construction of the current Church of Mary, Most Holy Mother of God was begun. In 1912 Karol Slivovsky was appointed priest for Vladivostok. He had come from the Warsaw nobility and had a doctor�s degree in Divinity. He was energetic, well educated, and greatly loved by the people. In 1920, the Archbishop of Mogilyov, Russia, established the Vladivostok Deanery that included a large area with 11,000 Catholics and 5 priests. Karol Slivovsky was appointed Dean. On October 28, 1923 he was consecrated Bishop of Vladivostok. The ceremony took place in Harbin, China, with the Archbishop of Harbin and two other Chinese Bishops. Bishop Slivovsky served in Vladivostok until the closing of his Cathedral by soviet authorities. The last years of his life were spent in the Vladivostok suburb of Sedanka, where, seriously ill, he was cared for by Sr. Casimira Piotrovskaya. He died on January 5, 1933 at the age of 85.[11] We are attempting to open his cause for sainthood. Preliminary work has begun. Please see our web page for further details and updates.

Regina Stanko of Tomsk, Russia, a former parishioner, sent by mail two more personal items of Bishop Karol Slivovsky. Bishop Slivovsky was the last priest in the whole of the Far East of Russia, so he had to be buried by his lay parishioners. Regina's father Stanislav Stanko buried Bishop Slivovsky's body after his death of old age in 1933 in the local village cemetery of Sekanka, the village to which the bishop had been exiled. A funeral mass was celebrated in Harbin, China after the European community there got word of the bishop's death. Stanislav saved the bishop's effects. The family was threatened with death during those Stalinist years, and Mr. Stanko was arrested, at which time some of the bishop's things were taken by the KGB, including his photo album (which might be used to identify people), his Latin-font typewriter, and his binoculars.

After Stanislav was most miraculously released, he immediately gathered his family, and the remainder of the bishop's belongings, and left for Tomsk in Siberia, hoping that no one would know them there so that they would be safe from arrest. They immediately had new identity cards made so that they could get rid of the old cards which had a black stripe which identified them as "enemies of the people". After Regina's father's death, she saved the bishop's effects all these years in a wooden box under her bed. Regina has now given them to our parish. My helper Alexei Hartman and our parish archivist Miroslava Efimova were present to witness the opening of the historic parcel from Regina Stanko. Inside were the Bishop's cupholder, and a notions box labeled "KS" for Karol Slivovsky.

Regina Stanko is a physician veteran of WWII. It was her father Stanislav Stanko who took care of Bishop Slivovsky. Stanislav Stanko buried Bishop Slivovsky and saved his personal belongings. During my last phone conversation with Regina, she was thinking about coming to Vladivostok to go to the cemetery where Bishop Slivovsky was buried to see if we can locate the grave. What a miracle it would be if we found it and were able to bring the remains to be buried in our cathedral![12]

On September 16, Miroslava Igorevna, our parish archivist and historian, and I traveled to Sedanka to see if we could find the house where Bishop Slivovsky lived and died after he had been exiled from Vladivostok. We did indeed find the home which still has the address it did in the 1930's. Stanislava Josephovna who now lives in Tomsk, but who was a child when the bishop was still alive and who used to take him milk every day from their family, described the house in detail, and how to walk from there to the bishop's grave at the Sedanka cemetery. After finding the house, we followed her instructions, and the path took us to the general area where we had believed earlier that the bishop was buried. Naturally, we hope to definitely locate the bishop's grave in conjunction with plans to work toward his canonization. Unless we find some further documentary of eye-witnessed facts, it will take quite a bit of work yet to locate the grave.[13]

Bishop Joseph Werth, S.J., D.D. (b. 1952)

Bishop Werth was born of a traditional Catholic family in Kazakhstan. His parents were of German nationality, his father from the Volga, and mother from Odessa. From 1979 to 1984 he was a seminarian in Lithuania. His first assignments after ordination were at Aktubinsk and the Volga region.[14] As Apostolic Administrator of Asiatic Russia he put out a global call for priests to work and stay in Russia. In 1991, some Vladivostok Catholics managed to locate each other through radio, television, and newspaper ads. They wrote to Bishop Werth, 3,000 miles away in Novosibirsk, told him of their existence, and asked him to send a priest. Fathers Effing and Maurer had been in contact with Bishop Werth about serving in Asiatic Russia, so the bishop asked Fr. Effing to visit Vladivostok and report back to him on the needs of Catholics there. Fr. Effing first visited in November 1991, and celebrated Mass for the fledgling Catholic community on the steps of the locked cathedral building on November 5. The Bishop assigned the two priests to Vladivostok.[15] They received their religious work visas from the Russian government on February 7, 1992 left San Francisco on February 11, and arrived in Vladivostok on February 13, 1992.

Bishop Jerzy Mazur

Bishop Mazur was installed as Bishop of the newest Russian Apostolic Administration of Eastern Russia on May 31, 1998. He is from Poland and is a member of the religious order of Divine Word Missionaries.

Blagoveschensk, City of

Population of the city is 200,000. It is a two-hour flight from Vladivostok. Blagoveschensk is the capital of the state of Amur.

Blagoveschensk, Parish in

The Transfiguration of Jesus parish serves all of Amur state, 141,500 square miles, an area larger than New Mexico.[16] Fr. Effing was the refounding pastor. The current pastor is Fr. Vladimir Sek, SVD.

Mr. Alexander Renaysky, whose mother had decided not to abort him 50 years earlier, helped the Catholic parish get started in his city. Mr. Renaysky, who has a tourist business in Blagoveschensk, has offered the use of his office until the original Catholic Church building is returned to the parish. Many Poles came to Blagoveschensk when Poland was partitioned between Russia and Prussia. They built a beautiful church and a Catholic hospital where sisters served the poor. During the communist revolution, the Bolsheviks decided to make Siberia a showplace of the new communist era, a land without the Church, a land without God. Under Stalin, all Catholic churches in the Far East were confiscated, and Orthodox churches were destroyed by the hundreds. Any remaining churches were turned into the most degrading uses possible � public toilets or barns. Cemeteries were turned into amusement parks. The Catholic Church in Blagoveschensk was made into a horse barn. In the 1950s some Orthodox asked the city for the Catholic Church as theirs had all been destroyed. The building was rented to them free of charge. They repaired it and it has been in constant use since then. In 1993 Fr. Myron Effing sent a Vladivostok parishioner to find out the situation of the church and Catholics in the city. Then, on March 23, 1994 Fr. Effing said the first Catholic Mass there.

On June 28, 1994, Bishop Werth re-erected the parish of Blagoveschensk, calling it Transfiguration of the Lord. Father Myron was named pastor, and the first public Catholic Mass was held there on July 20, 1994, when they also had the first organizational meeting of the parish.[17] The Orthodox have recently required what was their original parish land, and intend to rebuild their church there. When the Orthodox Church is rebuilt, the Orthodox will return the Catholic Church building to our parishioners.[18]

Bolshoy Kamyen, City of

The city has a Population of 65,000, and lies about 40 miles east of Vladivostok (roughly a three hour train ride).

Bolshoy Kamyen, Parish in

On May 31, 1993, Bishop Werth established the third parish in the region, St. John the Evangelist. A generous donor gave the funds for the purchase of an apartment that serves as both rectory and chapel. Fr. Dan Maurer is pastor, spending several days there each month.[19]

The parish is temporarily inactive. It is too difficult for Father Dan to get into the city, and because there are only three active parishioners there, a car is sent to drive them the thirty minutes to Romanovka once a month for confession, Mass and Catechism.[20]

Canons Regular of Jesus Christ the Lord

The Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord is a new congregation being founded in Russia at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok. The Cathedral is a natural place for canons because there is plenty of opportunity to live, pray, and work together while helping to replant the Christian faith in this land in which it was almost completely destroyed.[21]

Caritas

CARITAS is an international aid organization similar to Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. The organization has had an opportunity to begin working in Russia in 1991. CARITAS Primorye (Primorye is the state that Vladivostok is located in) operates under the direction of Mrs. Anastacia Potopenko, the first person of Russian nationality to join Most Holy Mother of God Parish. CARITAS operates an office in Vladivostok and has a number of volunteers, and helpers who work for very little pay. A pulmonary surgeon, Dr. Larissa Birukova, heads the CARITAS Medical Program.

This charitable organization was started locally by Anastacia Potopenko, the parish secretary of Most Holy Mother of God in 1992.[22] She was invited by CARITAS International to attend their conference in Rome, December 1992. There she was granted a private audience with Pope John Paul II, as part of a group of seven Russians at the meeting. After the trip, Bishop Werth asked her to begin organizing CARITAS in the Far East.[23] Anastacia started as the parish director of CARITAS, and has now become regional director. She was voted one of the three members of the CARITAS Russia board of directors. The other two are priests. A teacher by training, she is the mother of four children. It is nearly unheard of in today�s Russia to have four children. Her charge has been to found CARITAS in our region, and develop it. Now there are seven local CARITAS offices under her leadership. She also has been in charge of the parish CCD program for four years, doing most of the teaching herself.

CARITAS operates programs inside and outside the parish. It works with elderly parishioners who need help finding medicines, transportation to doctors or to Church, and assistance purchasing heavy items like potatoes. Most Russians do not have cars so they must find transportation from other sources. CARITAS Primorye also operated several programs with other institutions.

Programs

1) The MedPunkt program with the teacher�s college helps the medical staff of the college clinic work with older people in need of medical care.

2) The Med Program works with the regional polyclinic to aid the abandoned homebound. The medical program includes home health care, meals on wheels twice weekly; medical visits by Dr. Birukova, and provision of medicines when needed. Referrals for the home health program come from the public health clinics in two of Vladivostok�s four districts. Workers see that many of the older people they visit have already sold off household items to stretch their small pension�furniture, dishes, crystal, and jewelry. Housing is so tight that many elderly feel their families are waiting for them to die so they can have the apartment. Dr. Birukova feels that the local government, especially the Social Services and Health Department, is excited about the CARITAS Program, believing it to be a model for each of the health care districts and for mobile home health care teams.

3) The CARITAS Social Program serves other emergency requests, such as the Sakhalin Island earthquake, prisons, and assistance for the poor.

4) Finally, the City of Vladivostok has a contract with the �U Elvira� restaurant to help feed the poor and hungry. CARITAS cooperates with Svetlana to provide medical check-ups and clothing for these customers. Most support for CARITAS comes from Catholic Relief Services, but also from donors in America who send food clothing, and money; from CARITAS Japan, CARITAS Germany, and CARITAS Austria; and from local and foreign businessmen.[24] [See also Popov Island]

1996 was the 300^th anniversary of the Russian Navy. As part of the celebrations, many foreign ships visited Vladivostok.. On April 18, the Canadian ship HMCS Protecteur arrived with a load of donated hockey equipment and teddy bears for the local children. The equipment and toys were distributed through CARITAS.[25]

In November, 1996, a typical month, 13 people received clothing, food or medicine from CARITAS, 117 people were seen by the volunteer Russian physicians, 1,953 medical procedures were performed by the staff of nurses and physicians, and 543 other needy people came to the office for help. December saw the first results of new activities meant to employ the needy and handicapped. From the donated sewing machines brought by the American ship USS Blue Ridge came doll�s clothing, kitchen mittens, and kitchen aprons. From the candle molds came the first variety candles in time for the holidays.[26]

CARITAS directors are: Anastacia Potopenko as Regional Director; Lilia Selena as Vladivostok Parish�s Director; Nina Labutina as Nakhodka�s Director; Tatyana Yermak as Khabarovsk�s Director; Ecaterina Revisov as Blagoveschensk�s Director Ludmilla Sidarenko as Romanovka�s director. Sergei Akulenko (Vladivostok) is in charge of organizing the children�s parties in Vladivostok and in helping the other parishes to organize theirs. He stays behind the scenes, giving pride of place to �Grandfather Frost� (the Russian version of Santa Claus) and the other people he has arranged to lead the actual events. He is the �producer.� Dr. Milkhailova works with the elderly programs.

1998 Caritas Activity

� Persons receiving assistance (financial, food packs, medicines, spiritual support): 3849.

� Volunteers visited the children�s orphanage, and the specialized house for arrested homeless children 24 times.

� 176 persons were supplied with second hand clothes, and about 4708 kg of clothes were sorted out for other cities and villages of Primorye and Amur regions.

The therapist, opthamologist, cardiologist, psychotherapist and urologist were involved in the Medical Trip Program for the citizens of the poor and socially troubled regions of Popav Island, Romanavka, and Nahodka. 102 patients were supplied with medications.

Nursing Home Service (2 nurses with 5 volunteers)

There were training sessions for workers and volunteers for chapters of Caritas, including: reports on Christmas programs for the children; assistance to Regional Clinic Hospital; volunteering at the specialized house for arrested children; volunteering at the maternity hospital; helping the regional association for children suffering Diabetes; and volunteering at the city orphanage in Arsenev.

Catechetical Camp for the Catholic Children

Our "Oasis" Catechetical Camp for the Catholic children of our state was held from July 18-25 at an old pioneer camp on Amursky Bay. Forty-six kids from our seven parishes took part and the theme was "The Family". Fr. Myron went to the camp for confessions and mass. Russian catechists ran the camp with Sister Rosario in charge of the teaching at the camp. Nicolai Dorodnov, Fr. Myron�s secretary, was in charge of activities and discipline.[27]

Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok

The Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok is definitely a reality: twelve young women (all music students); and 7 men, only one of whom is a music student. The concert choir is preparing Camille Saint-Saens' "Christmas Oratorio" with three famous (for Vladivostok) guest soloists, soprano, mezzo-soprano and tenor. They are also putting the finishing touches on two modernish arrangements of traditional carols: "O Holy Night" and "Adeste Fideles". For three of the Christmas carols that the new concert choir will sing our parishioner and music student Andr� wrote out all the orchestral parts. He partly composed them, partly listened to other versions on CD, and came up with some great stuff. One of them has some unexpected, modern, but interesting and pleasant harmonization. He must have spent hours doing it. Diana, our parish violinist also wrote out all the parts for the Verdi song, for two violins, viola, and cello.[28]

Fr. Maurer provided the following account of the beginnings of the Catholic Concert Choir: Relying on God's guidance we announce the beginning of a new project in the development of sacred music in the Russian Far East, the founding of the Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok.

In 1992 at the beginning of the rebirth of the Catholic parish of the Most Holy Mother of God, one of the greatest pastoral needs was to give people access to the Sacred Liturgy which had been denied to them for so long. The Catholic Church in Russia was completely destroyed by the Communist repression of religion. The Russian Orthodox Church, too, suffered the worst persecution in its history. By the end of 71 years of persecution very few people knew anything at all about Christianity, except that it was dangerous to have anything to do with it.

The Second Vatican Council reminded us that the Eucharistic Liturgy is the "source and summit" of our Christian life. When Fr Myron and Fr Daniel, members of the liturgical religious order of Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord, came to Vladivostok in February 1992, they saw that the greatest need was to help people to celebrate the Eucharist and to experience its beauty. The development of sacred liturgical music has been a major part of this recovery process since the beginning of our work in Russia.

Providentially, as Vladivostok Sunrise readers know, in 1995 the Catholic Parish of the Epiphany of Our Lord in Coon Rapids, Minnesota gave the parish in Vladivostok a used electric organ. It is a powerful instrument with 39 stops and a beautiful pipe organ-like sound. It has been an incomparable gift to the parish and to the entire city. It is used every week for Sunday and feast day Masses, and it has allowed us to develop perhaps the only regular organ concert series of sacred music in all of Russia. We now have at least 12 organ concerts a year. Not wanting our church to become just another concert hall in the city, our concerts consist only of sacred and classical organ music and other sacred music. The closest concert organ to ours is 2600 miles away.

For the first year of our concert program (1996) all concerts were open to the public free of charge. But because the demand for admission was so great, we had to start selling tickets as the only way to LIMIT the number of concert goers! Because our church has only 200 seats suitable for paid admission we also increased the number of performances of each concert. Our concerts have become the most popular concerts in the city. The price of admission in rubles is equivalent to $3.30, which is slightly more expensive than the average ticket for classical music events in our area.

Since a whole concert of only organ music can be too heavy for some people to listen to our concerts always include guest soloists of other musical instruments and guest vocalists, among whom are the best performing artists in the Russian Far East. The money realized through ticket sales allows us to offer a stipend to them and also to make a modest, tax free profit for the restoration of our pre-Revolutionary church building. All tickets are always sold out well before the date of the performance. In addition we give some free tickets to people who cannot afford the price of admission, including special group tickets to orphans and other children living in institutions and chronic care hospitals.

Since our concert series began it has become our tradition to include in the program of four Christmas concerts and four Easter concerts not only soloists but also one or more choirs in order to lend a fuller, more celebrative sound to these festal seasons. Vladivostok, however, does not have a tradition of high quality choral music, and has no tradition whatsoever of SACRED choral music. The performances of these secular choirs at our concerts in the past have been disappointing. Yet our parish choir, made up of members of the parish, most of whom do not read music, are not able to learn difficult music quickly enough to keep to a concert schedule.

With over five years of concert experience but without an adequate choir in the city, the time seems right to form our own Catholic concert choir. The choir will be made up of 26 members and one director. To become a member a person must have some university-level training in choral music. The choir director, Miss Svetlana Naumova, who is a parishioner and also the director of the parish choir, is a graduate student in the faculty of choral music at the Vladivostok Academy of Fine Arts.

The yearly schedule of the choir is divided into two parts by the feasts of Christmas and Easter. The main musical piece the choir will prepare is the "Christmas Oratorio" by Camille Saint-Saens, performed in Latin. The choir will also rehearse a number of traditional Christmas carols in Russian and in other languages. After Christmas the choir will again meet regularly to prepare the four Easter concerts, the program for which will include the appropriate parts of G. F. Handel's "Messiah", including the "Alleluia Chorus".

We look for benefactors to support the new choir only from among people who are not already donors to our mission projects. We do not want to divert the attention of our present benefactors from the good works that they are already supporting, so we hope to invite new benefactors to become involved in sponsoring the revival of sacred music in Russia. If you are an active benefactor of any of our specific projects or of our Russian mission in general, please do not divert your contribution to the new choir. But if you know someone who has never given to our mission work and who is interested in supporting good sacred music, perhaps you could invite them to become a founding sponsor of this new project.

A financial gift for the support of the Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok has the potential to make a great spiritual impact on the Christian awareness of an entire large city of one million people. Ten years ago fewer than 4% of the population of the region was baptized. Evangelization of the atheistic Soviet people has been very slow because of the thoroughness of Communist propaganda against religion and because of the destruction of family life and the cynicism of unfulfilled dreams of heaven on earth. We have found that the most successful way to get non-religious or non-practicing Russians to visit our church is through the beauty of sacred music performed at our concerts. We do not use the concerts as a manipulative way to preach to the unsuspecting, but we do use them as a way to share with others the incomparable beauty of the Catholic sacred musical tradition, and occasionally to teach them something of the biblical tradition connected with the major feasts. Since beauty and music are very important to the Russian soul our concerts have a very positive influence on what and how the citizens of Vladivostok think about the Lord and His Church.

We hope to find Russian benefactors who can take over the ongoing support of the choir. This may take some time, but with the recent progress made in the Russian economy, it is at least thinkable that Russian people may have some day the wherewithal to become civic-minded supporters of cultural and religious programs. For now their tradition of Communist totalitarian government works against this, since no Russians have ever been taught to take financial responsibility for anything outside their own family. Everything was always provided by the State.

Please pray for the success of the foundation and growth of the Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok.[29]

Communications

Regular mail to Vladivostok takes three weeks. An outgoing fax costs $36/minute, or about $12/page. But Fr. Effing�s E-mail bill is anywhere from $40 to $400/month. Cost is based on the number of bytes transferred either way. As of February 2001, the total monthly bill was down to $40.00 with a new Internet server.

Couples Retreat

We held the first couple's retreat in the Far East on March 8 and 9, 2002 in Khabarovsk. It was a joint project of all the parishes of our Vladivostok Deanery. We have to say that it was a great success, and the couples recommended that we expand the retreat. Because of travel problems considering the huge size of our deanery, we could only be together for a day and a half. A three-day retreat would be better. Perhaps the next retreats will be more localized to reduce travel problems and make the retreat more accessible to couples. Eleven couples made this first retreat which was in the style of a preached retreat. There was the celebration of the 50^th wedding anniversary of Maria and Nicolai Bovsunovsky and her 70^th birthday during the retreat.[30]

Demographics

Vladivostok is a city of nearly a million people. When Fathers Effing and Maurer arrived from California in February 1992, there were only 10 known baptized Catholics in the city. Khabarovsk is a city of 700,000. It is a 14-hour-train ride north from Vladivostok, and is home to Immaculate Conception Parish, with Fr. Effing as pastor. Bolshoy Kamyen is a city of 60,000, about 40 miles east of Vladivostok, and is home of St. John the Evangelist parish, with Fr. Maurer as pastor.[31]

As of January 1995, The Primorsky Committee of Government Statistics reports the following: In the first six months of 1995, 2,818 births and 4,116 deaths recorded in Primorsky Krai. Also, 1,914 couples registered to marry, but 1,631 applied for divorce.[32]

Vladivostok has 118,000 pensioners but only two public senior centers. Therefore, many seniors congregate at such places as glass recycling centers where they meet others and can supplement their low pensions.[33]

Denominations

Many non-Christian sects and newer Christian groups of a sectarian nature are actively seeking converts who know nothing about the true Apostolic Churches of Rome and Orthodoxy. In Vladivostok, there are active groups of Hare Krishnas, Jehovah�s Witnesses, and Mormons. There are also a number of evangelical groups who do not speak to one another and who think Catholics and Orthodox are damned. There is even a group preaching that Mary is a goddess. All are making inroads among the young who do not have enough information to make an informed decision about the truth of Christian beliefs.[34]

There is a Catholic Faith by mail program that reaches people all over Russia. Many Moslems write, asking for the course in Christianity. In the Moslem religion, it is a capital offense to abandon your religion and become Christian. So many people can�t find out about Christianity because they can�t let their families or neighbors know. However, they can secretly send and receive mail, and no one knows.[35]

Dioceses In Russia

Citing the demands of pastoral care for Catholics in Russia, John Paul II raised the country�s four apostolic administrations to the rank of diocese, the Vatican Press Office disclosed today. They are the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, whose metropolitan archbishop is Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz; the Diocese of St. Clementin Saratow, whose bishop is Clemens Pickel; the Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk, whose bishop is

Joseph Werth; and the Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk, whose bishop is Jerzy Mazur.[36]

The creation of the four new dioceses still leaves unclear our situation, the Diocese of Vladivostok, and that of the Apostolic Administration of Karafuto (South Sakhalin Island). Naturally we are hoping that the Holy Father will name a bishop to the See of Vladivostok, but so far we are still like orphans. The official documents do not include us in any of the new dioceses as such. Probably we continue to be supervised by Bishop Jerzy Mazur of the new "Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk."[37]

Some tension has been noted in the wake of the creation of the new dioceses. The newspapers and websites are full these days with the news about our Bishop Mazur being refused admission to Russia. When the Holy Father made the new dioceses in Russia, there was a big protest on the streets near the cathedral in Novosibirsk. Last Sunday there was a big protest around the cathedral in Irkutsk.[38]

Economy

As of January 1995, The Primorsky Committee of Government Statistics reports the following:[39]

Gasoline prices were recently $4.20/gallon, and monthly inflation is running at about 15%. It is very common in Russia for workers to have to wait for 2-4 months to receive their pay. When you hear about the �mafia� working in Russia, the �mafia� is often just private companies trying to deal with a corrupt system, not just the criminal element.

Many pensioners supplement their income by bringing glass to recycling centers. Bottling companies are now using 70-80% recycled glassware, up from 10% in 1991. Recyclers get only 300 rubles (6 cents) for a beer bottle. Vladivostok�s glass collection center has become a place for elderly people, who are often lonely, to socialize.[40]

Family Life Program

A major project is underway in our diocese to help support and heal family life. In Russia 75% of marriages end in divorce during the first four years of marriage! The main reason it seems to me is promiscuity before marriage--which also means promiscuity after marriage! The second reason is the poor situation of men in a society where "white slavery" existed for so long, only to be replaced by Communism and socialism, and all of that linked to alcoholism. You will find women in almost all positions of authority and work in Russia--bricklayers, plasterers, teachers, doctors--but you will find very few men as teachers or doctors. Each deanery will have a conference to make decisions about how we can effect changes in those family patterns in Russia. Our deanery meeting will be in Khabarovsk during November 28 to December 1. It will be difficult to help, but God wants to work through His Church! Little by little it will happen. This summer we helped with the first 12 step AA rehabilitation program in Vladivostok. We have to take a lot of other initiatives, too.[41]

Father Daniel Maurer (b. 1951)

Father Maurer was born on March 5, 1951 in Hart, Michigan. He majored in East Asian Studies at Michigan State University in East Lansing. He graduated magna cum laude in 1973. He Joined the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross (Crosiers) in 1975 for novitiate and major seminary. He transferred in 1981 to the Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists), and completed his priesthood studies at the Jesuit Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, earning a Masters of Divinity in 1983. From 1983 to 1988, he worked in various Assumptionist communities in the US, Mexico, and Chile. He joined Fr. Effing in Guam as Dean of Students and Spanish teacher at Fr. Duenas Memorial School. Two years later the community moved to Modesto, CA, where Brother Maurer again was Dean and Spanish teacher.[42] Bishop Donovan of Kalamazoo ordained Brother Maurer to the deaconate � for service to the Church in Asian Russia � in Brother Maurer�s home parish of St Bernard in Benton Harbor, Michigan on December 21, 1991. Bishop Joseph Werth ordained him a priest in Vladivostok on September 20, 1992.[43]

Fr. Daniel Maurer recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of his ordination. He was ordained a priest on September 20, 1992, in Vladivostok at the trade union building by Bishop Joseph Werth, S.J. Joining with others to congratulate Fr Dan on his 10th anniversary was Lilia Timofeevna, director of the parish department of CARITAS and Fr. Dan's own Romanovka parishioners brought congratulations in the person of the parish trustee, Ludmilla Sidarenko.[44]

Father Gregory Yurkevich (Marytr)

Father Gregory Yurkevich was a Polish priest who was the first and last rector of the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God. He also acted as the personal secretary/attendant to the first bishop of Vladivostok who was also Polish. Fr. Gregory was arrested by the communists and was sent to a gulag for slave labor. He is reported to have lost an eye, and later died in the gulag.

Father Myron Effing (b. 1941)

Father Effing was born on February 7, 1941 in Indiana. He became a religious in 1964, and was ordained a priest in 1972. He holds a masters degree in Astronomy from Cornell University in New York. He has spent most of his life in vocation work or teaching science in seminaries. In 1992, he was incardinated in the Apostolic Administration of Novosibirsk, arriving in Vladivostok in February 1992. As Dean of the Vladivostok Deanery, he answers for a region of four states about as big as California, Washington, and Oregon together. As Pastor, he has five parishes with a combined area about the same as the State of Washington.

Far Eastern Catholic Youth Conference

The Jubilee Year 2000 Far Eastern Catholic Youth conference was held in Khabarovsk. The theme of the conference was �Christ our Teacher�. Every day�s theme was another aspect of the teaching Jesus. Father Effing�s theme was �Christ the Teacher of Mercy�. Other conference topics included marriage, religious vocations, alcoholism, the Bible, apologetics, and NFP. There were about 35 youth at the Conference, serious and prayerful. Next year the conference will be at Transfiguration Parish in Blagoveschensk.[45]

The Far Eastern Catholic Youth Conference was held this year (2001) on Sakhalin Island at the request of our bishop from August 14 to 19. There the youth participated in the dedication of the new Catholic church in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk which was built by Maryknoll who staff the parish. The youth even helped to clean the church in preparation for the event. Archbishop Sweitz of Anchorage attended the ceremony. Our Bishop Jerzy Mazur blessed parishioners after mass. One difficulty was the 18 hour boat trip to the island, and then 18 hours return! At the conference I was able to give some lectures about alcoholism and drug addiction�two of the scourges of Russia. Mr George Riess from Dayton, Ohio was a major speaker on the theme of the Conference this year: The Family. It was the biggest Conference in its history�66 attendees from the southern Far East, from Yakutia, and from Eastern Siberia.[46]

One of our parishioners, Asya Shevchenko, was selected by European benefactors to go to the Internation Youth Conference in Toronto with Pope John Paul II. She was chosen for the trip because of her volunteerism for parish activities and traveled with a group of 50 youth from throughout the Russian Federation.[47]

Today I found the Russians! They had two very large flags on fishing poles and so it was easy to spot them in the crowd, of some 300,000! There are over fifty of them and they're all staying with host families of a suburban parish. Sister Roberta is there, too. She is the first native Russian to be consecrated a Catholic nun in the post-Communist era. She joined a Polish order of sisters. They also have a nun from Argentina with them who is working in Siberia. And of course, the Polish Father Vladimir from Blagoveschensk, who is the youth director. While at the Archabbey in Latrobe, we had over 500 gather. All were members of the Emmanuel Community (a French group). I was asked to speak on the Church in Russia. I did and I wept.

I only told of Baba who lived out in the country. We drove to her log cabin dacha so that Fr. Myron could give her Holy Communion. I guess Baba's family members are non-believers so they left the cabin when we arrived. Baba was almost completely blind so she touched our faces when she spoke to us. She had cheap paper prints of holy pictures nailed to her walls and she was in her nineties. I had never seen anyone so happy as she chatted and fed us hot tea. Baba had no teeth, was a hunchback and wore no shoes. On the drive back, Fr. Myron said that she chatted again, as she always does of "her golden chalice." When she was a girl, the Communists shot the Orthodox and Catholic priests in the town center which she and the villagers witnessed. As I remember the story, the last time she spoke with her priest, he said that she would get a golden cup in heaven if she kept the Faith and she persevered and I came to know her.[48]

The rest of the young adults of our parishes were invited by the Parish of the Transfiguration of Blagoveschensk to hold the 2002 Far Eastern Catholic Youth Conference in their city. Morning prayer began the day of the Youth Conference. I had founded the parish nine years ago, but the Divine Word Fathers had taken it over four years ago, and so I would be going back for the first time since then. I could not attend the whole conference because of the need to be in Vladivostok on Sundays, but my four days there were very refreshing. I noticed that Blagoveschensk is cleaner and brighter than it was, that the Chinese city of Hai Hei just across the Amur River has also grown "up" in skyscrapers, and the flowers were blooming everywhere and the air is sparkling clean. It was especially nice to see the Zeya River again-surely one of the cleanest in the world with absolutely clean sandy beaches. The young adults also enjoyed their sometimes twice-daily swims. The city has one of the finest museums in our area, but the old Catholic church most especially invited us to visit. It had been built in two stages before the Revolution in 1917, but was confiscated as were all Catholic churches by the government in the anti-religion campaigns. After being used as a barn for horses for many years, it was given over to the Orthodox Church during WWII, and has served the local Orthodox parish church all these years. The Catholic parish hopes to again own it soon as the Orthodox complete their new cathedral. I've promised to return for the reblessing of the church when that happens. It is always a pleasure to visit Blagoveschensk-the city name means "Annunciation"-in order to experience a truly pleasant Russian city. The Youth Conference! We had many speakers on many topics, including our vocation in life, Natural Family Planning, alcoholism and drug abuse, but we tried to examine another really major Russian problem: How to promote the health and welfare--especially spiritual welfare--of the Russian male, who had been so sidelined by socialism, by easy divorce, by the abortion of his children over which he had no control, by alcoholism, and now by new economic realities that he was not prepared to meet. I'm hoping we have some new ideas that will help bring him back to church and back to family life.[49]

FOMIP

FOMIP is a charitable organization modeled on the St Vincent de Paul Society. Our �St. Vincent de Paul Stores� are incorporated as nonprofits under the Russian name of �FOMIP��Foundation for the Poorest.

On September 1 we opened our second "St Vincent de Paul Store"--in the City of Chernigovka. FOMIP President Andre Udovichenko, Viktor Zimin, Fr Myron, and Store Manager Sergei Semenishen had their pictures taken in front of the store on the occasion.

� St. Vincent de Paul� store has been operating in Vladivostok for some time. After I blessed the store, there was a rush of customers to buy second hand American clothing. Thanks to our American helpers and friends in St Paul, Minnesota and in Evansville, Indiana, we have the used clothing. Our stores are also selling custom furniture which is made in our shop in Vladivostok. The furniture includes students' homework desks, bookcases, and storage cabinets made to order to expand the storage area in small Russian apartments. Regular production of these wood products is now underway, including the glued panels which we can sell or use ourselves to build the furniture. Our stores provide employment for Russian who need jobs, give temporary work and training to those released from prisons, and any profit must be used for charitable work.[50]

Today FOMIP (Vladivostok) is sending the first container of their production of glued wood paneling to South Korea. Naturally we hope it is the first of many, many.[51]

The wood factory (Vladivostok) has produced a sample pew for Lesozovodsk using the design of a usual Russian kitchen bench with kneelers added.[52]

Franciscans

The Franciscans (OFM), including a priest and a brother from Seoul, South Korea, and a priest from Byelorus, are scheduled to take over Ussurisk's Nativity parish in February. Meanwhile Father Dominic and Brother Peter have arrived from Korea to begin acclimating, and to look for living space in the city. They have agreed to take over the parish as the first foreign mission for the Korean Franciscans.[53]

Geography

Russia is more than twice the size of the entire USA (including Alaska), and spans 11 time zones.[54]

Vladivostok is a port on the Sea of Japan, approximately 20 miles from China, and 100 miles from North Korea. It is the last stop on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and is the most important Russian seaport on the Pacific Ocean.[55]

Hartman, Alex

Alex Hartman is Fr. Effing�s representative and helper in the Northern part of the Deanery, especially for charity projects. He helps with translation and founding of new parishes. He has assisted with the founding of parishes in Arsenev, Levozovzsk, Ussurisk, and now a new parish in Olga to be named The Presentation of Mary.

Alex serves on the Honorary Council of the Women�s Prison in Khaborovsk and has been invited to serve on the All-Prisons Honorary Council of the Russian Department of Justice, which works under Senator Reznik in Moscow. Credibility has been established because of the interest shown by the church through Mr. Hartman�s dedication in continuing to work with the prison and with prisoners with the aid of Catholic Charities USA.[56]

Health

There is a real shortage of dentists, and a great need for dentists who would come and teach Russians how to use modern dental practices. In Vladivostok, for example, there is no Novocain. The dental chairs are often the old-fashioned types with belts. Children are petrified to go to the dentist. The elderly point to their teeth and ask for help from America.[57]

The health of Army recruits is much worse than ever before. They are thin, underfed, and a lot are mentally retarded. It�s very difficult to select people for the Special Forces, according to Russian Army colonel Vladimir Kupriyanov. Furthermore, statistics from the medical commission show that 20% of the boys have mental disorders or drug problems. Another 20% have eye problems, while many have internal diseases. Pyotr Kudran, senior physician with the medical commission says, �We see kids with 10 or more teeth missing�Sometimes a guy isn�t sick, but sort of lost and underdeveloped and his reactions are like he is retarded.�[58]

In Russia, there has been a gradual deterioration of public health since the end of the 1960s. At the same time, government spending for general social needs, including health protection, is still declining.

Between 1985 and 1993, the population under five years of age declined by 19%, while the elderly population (those over 65) increased by 18%. In 1992-1993, the number of deaths exceeded the number of live births, contributing to a 0.1% decrease in the resident population.

Life expectancy at birth has declined from 69.3 in 1985 to 65.1 in 1993. The drop has been more dramatic for males. (In the US in 1992, the overall life expectancy reached a record high of 75.8 years.)

The overall age-adjusted death rate rose by 24% between 1990 and 1993. Death rates increased all age groups and for both sexes. (In the US, the overall age-adjusted death rate declined by 3% between 1990 and 1992.)

Between 1990 and 1993, heart disease death rate rose by 18%. Heart disease accounted for more than one-fifth of all deaths since 1990. (In the US between 1980 and 1992, the rate declined 27%, although it remains the leading cause of death for both sexes.) Each year, for every 100,000 Russians, 402 die of heart disease; for every 100,000 Americans, 250 die of heart disease.

Death rate from stroke increased 13% between 1990 and 1993. (In the US between 1980 and 1992, stroke-related deaths declined 35%.) Each year, 278 Russians out of 100,000 will die from stroke; in the same year, only 48 of 100,000 Americans will die from stroke.

Mortality resulting from other external causes rose by 93% between 1990 and 1993. Mortality rate for homicide rose by 110% in the same three years and suicide deaths rose by more than 40%. (In the US from 1991 to 1992, homicide deaths declined 4% and suicide deaths fell by 3%.) In both countries, suicides exceed homicides. In Russia each year, there are 38 suicides and 30 homicides for every 100,000 people. In America, there are 12 suicides and 10 homicides for every 100,000.

Russian mortality from pneumonia and influenza more than doubled between 1990 and 1993, and the rate of diphtheria cases rose by almost 1,200%. The number of these cases appears to be increasing exponentially.[59]

History

In 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev inaugurated his programs of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), which signaled his attempt to fashion a gentler communist empire. But it would take five long years for Catholics in Vladivostok to trust that religious freedom had actually returned to their land. Perhaps it took so long because too many Russians still remembered the depths of terror with which the communist officials obliterated any sign of religion after the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The Russian Far East, a proud, energetic frontier land at the turn of the century, did not succumb without a struggle. After the Czar was assassinated, the Far East declared itself an independent republic. But their independence was short-lived. Red Army forces, naval and ground, invaded and finally established their control over the entire region on October 25, 1992. Vladivostok was a part of Russia again � this time, Communist Russia.

After brutally consolidating their power, the communists could carry out their utopian socialist agenda, including the systematic destruction of the very idea of God as a supreme, creative, loving being. They especially devoted their energies to the persecution of Christianity.

Before 1923, more than 30,000 Roman Catholics lived in Vladivostok and the surrounding Primorye Region. They had nearly completed the construction of a beautiful church built in the style of Polish gothic revival. By 1935, the year the last priest was killed, the Catholic community was only a memory. The church was closed and converted for use as the Primorye Government Archives.

It is said that between 1923 and 1935, most of the Catholics of the region were killed. The local people today, who received the stories from the few survivors, now say that every Catholic priest was imprisoned and killed. The vast majority of practicing Catholics were shot and their bodies dumped into mass graves, later used as building sites. Knowing the terror that the communist regime had used in the past and might still use, it took religious people today some time before they were willing to express themselves openly.

Two young men and a Polish priest were instrumental in forming the new catholic community in Vladivostok. In 1989, Igor Davidov converted to Christianity and joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Vladivostok. In 1990 he read an article in the Seventy Day newspaper about Fr. Jan Sergi Gajek, a professor at Lublin Catholic University in Poland, and his ecumenical work among Christian denominations. Igor invited the priest to visit. In December 1990, the priest came, and they advertised on radio, cable TV, and newspapers to locate Catholics in the city. They found none while Father Gajek was there, but the day after he left, a young Catholic, Andrei Popok, identified himself to Igor. Andrei, born in the Ukraine in 1966, came to Vladivostok in 1988 as an officer of the Red Banner Fleet. He had converted to Catholicism that year while studying anti-Christian propaganda in his military college. Once in Vladivostok, in the middle of glastnost, Andrei set about trying to find other Catholics for prayer, Bible study, and support. He knew there had been a large Catholic community before 1935, and he searched for lost members. But people were still afraid. Then Andrei met Igor, and the two set about to locate more Catholics, advertising on TV, radio and in the newspapers. In July of 1991, Anastacia Potopenko heard an advertisement about a meeting and she attended. The Vladivostok Catholic community was reborn.

Just a few weeks after that first meeting, the August Coup tried to topple glastnost and to re-impose communist orthodoxy on the Soviet Union. Fortunately the struggle failed.

By Russian law, for an organization to be registered officially, it must have at least 10 members and a constitution. Slowly the group located new members and Andrei wrote for a sample of a constitution from a priest friend in Kiev. The community then wrote their own, and on August 25, 1991, a date they consider the foundation date, just four days after the failed coup attempt, the Vladivostok Catholic Community asked for official recognition according to the laws of the State. Official notification was registered on January 4, 1992, and received the notification on January 10.[60]

Before the revolution, Most Holy Mother of God Parish had some 15,000 members. The parish priest died in the persecution, as did most parishioners. The Russian people love to hear the Fatima story. It is amazing to them that heaven would pay particular attention to Russia and that Catholic Christians have been praying for Russia for all these years. A Pope with such a strong Marian orientation also impresses them. Before the revolution, every Russian home displayed an icon of Mary. During the Soviet period, it was replaced by the symbols of communism. But now the icons have come back. The rosary is also very popular in Russia. It�s a new prayer to most Russians, although the very oldest Catholics have had a rosary all through the years.

During his 1990 visit to Vladivostok, Fr. Effing celebrated an outdoor Mass in front of the parish church. From then until Christmas, 1991, Masses were offered in the House of the Pioneers, a Communist Youth Organization building. Because of increased attendance, the parish moved the Sunday Mass to the larger House of Unions.[61]

When Frs. Effing and Maurer arrived, they found only ten baptized Catholics in the city.[62] They had answered a call for priests from Bishop Werth, apostolic administrator of Asiatic Russia. After more than 70 years of communist repression, there were few native Russian priests, so Bishop Werth appealed for priests from all parts of the globe to come help him minister to the 1.5 million putative Catholics spread throughout his vast diocese. Catholic presence is scattered in the Russian Far East. After brutally consolidating their power, the communists carried out their utopian socialist agenda, including the systematic destruction of the very idea of God as a supreme, creative, loving being. They especially devoted their energies to the persecution of Christianity.[63]

The first Mass at the Cathedral was held on November 10, 1991, outside on the steps. The event was announced the previous evening on Vladivostok cable TV and was attended by about 70 people. Fr. Effing wore a hat and gloves, and his winter coat under the vestments. There was no music and Russians know no hymns. The Mass was video taped by the cable station for later showing, and news of the Mass was broadcast all across Russia on national network news programs.[64]

On November 15, 1991 Bishop Joseph Werth formally accepted the application of Fr. Myron Effing and Brother Daniel Maurer to be the first resident Catholic Clergy in Vladivostok in 50 years.

The Catholics who now remain tell stories of how every Catholic priest was imprisoned and killed, and that the vast majority of practicing Catholics were shot and their bodies were dumped into mass graves that were later used as building sites. It is believed that before 1923, more than 30,000 Roman Catholics lived in Vladivostok and the surrounding region. By 1935, the year the last priest was killed, the Catholic community was only a memory. Those who survived lived in terror of being discovered as a Catholic. Many of these people are now in their 70s and 80s. When they are first informed that Catholicism is reviving in the region, they are terrified that it is a trick. Then when they discover the truth, they are happy to be able to receive the sacraments. Many times, one of the priests will reach a dying person, just to learn in time that they are Catholic. Some people receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Holy Eucharist for the first time on their deathbeds.[65]

A parishioner in Nakhodka stated that her grandfather had been a Ukrainian Catholic priest. He had been arrested and sent to the gulag in the far North where he died under Stalin as an �enemy of the people�. The parishioner is a lawyer�now on pension�but had wanted to become a doctor. She was not admitted to medical school because they would not accept the granddaughter of �an enemy of the people�.[66]

The vast majority of Catholics in Vladivostok at the time of the Communist take-over were either killed or fled to China and beyond. Those who stayed in the area and survived soon realized that to teach their children how to pray might be to sign their children�s death warrants. As a result, no prayers, no Scriptures, nothing was handed down. Those who came forward as Catholics when Fr. Effing and Fr. Maurer arrived only knew they had been baptized and maybe received their First Communion. They knew nothing of the faith. Under the Communists, all voluntary associations of people had to be approved and registered by the Party. No religious organization, not even the Russian Orthodox Church, could teach religion to anyone. They were only allowed to hold prayer services for the few willing to attend. Now there is weekly exposition of the Blessed Sacrament every Thursday, ending with Benediction. Russian Catholics are learning to love the Eucharist, and some come from several hours away for Sunday Mass. Some parishioners, however, adopt Catholicism with enthusiasm, and then lose interest after a couple of years.[67]

Work in the archives continues to yield information about our parish and about Catholics before the Russian Revolution. A recent find is the complete approved articles of incorporation for the parish charitable organization which was called "Blagochinost", or "Decency". The founders include the then pastor, Father Bulevich, the assistant pastor Father Silovich, and parishioners including an engineer, a bank president, a judge, the Ussurisk Railway bookkeeper, and others.[68]

Irkutsk, City of

Irkutsk, Parish in

The new Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Irkutsk, Russia was consecrated on September 8, 2000. Two cardinals, 12 bishops, 70 priests, and many sisters and laity attended the event.[69] The parish was the site of the ordination of the first Russian native to be ordained to the priesthood in Asian Russia since the return of religious freedom. Evgeny Peregudov was ordained on Trinity Sunday, June 10, 2001 at the close of the annual conference for all members of the clergy and religious life in the diocese.[70]

Khabarovsk, City of

Khabarovsk is a city of a million on the Amur River, and capital of the state of Khabarovsk. It is a manufacturing and international city, with air connections to Anchorage and San Francisco.[71] The population of the city is 700,000. Khabarovsk is a 14-hour (500-mile) train ride from Vladivostok.

Khabarovsk, Parish in

Before the Russian revolution, there were two parishes and a Catholic school. One church building was destroyed, and the remaining one, a wooden building, was confiscated in 1935, and made into a clinic for venereal diseases. Floors were built inside, just as in Vladivostok. Historians disagreed on what the parish had been called, either �Transfiguration of the Lord� or �Immaculate Conception�. Decided at first it should be �Transfiguration of the Lord.� Father Myron Effing is pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Khabarovsk. In early 1996, Fr. Effing found that the original name of the parish in Khabarovsk was �Immaculate Conception.�[72] Parish was officially registered with the government on October 1, 1994, and Fr. Effing appointed the parish board on October 14. The first public Mass in the building was November 7. This was the second parish entrusted to Fr. Effing and Fr. Maurer.[73] Fr. Effing visited the parish at least once a month for Mass, confessions, and baptismal preparations.[74] The Parish has now been turned over to the Maryknoll Missionaries. Fr. Ed Schoellmann and Fr. Robert Reilly are the two American Maryknoll missioners in Khabarovsk.[75]

Lay Pastoral Workshops, Diocesan

The first three workshops were held in Vladivostok. The fourth was combined with the western region and held in Irkutsk in September 2000 to coincide with the blessing of the new cathedral. The fifth installment of the diocesan lay pastoral workshops was held from March 17-25 2001 in Khabarovsk. Fr. Dan�s job was to prepare and lead all the prayer services (three a day), coordinate all the Masses, and give the final day of recollection on Saturday, March 24. He also gave three of the presentations about the Liturgy to the 10-16 liturgical musicians who assembled each evening for 90 minutes. Vladivostok sent the largest delegation (15 of the 62 people) to the workshop. People were in attendance from 18 different parishes in the eastern part of the diocese.

The workshop allowed him to visit with a number of priests, sisters and lay workers from the diocese who were at the workshop to give various class and activities.

1. Fr. Joseph Gallovich, a young Slovak diocesan priest who spent the last three years as professor of moral theology at the major seminary in St Petersburg, and who is now the pastor of the new cathedral parish in Irkutsk+ADs-

2. Fr. Yaroslav Vishnevski, a young Polish diocesan priest who is the pastor of the parish in the capital city of Sakhalin Island. He was in Khabarovsk to meet the bishop and escort him to Sakhalin for the laying of the cornerstone of a large church there, which is being funded by Maryknoll+ADs-

3. Fr. Vladimir Siek, SVD, a young Polish Divine Word missionary who is the pastor of the parish in Blagoveshensk which Fr. Myron re-founded six years ago. He was in Khabarovsk to give classes in Catholic Social Teachings at the workshop+Ads

4. Fr. Alexander Petershick, a Polish Pallotine Missionary priest who lives in Irkutsk and is the head of both our diocesan offices of Caritas (International Catholic Charities) and Pastoral
Education. He speaks ten languages fluently+ADs-

5. Sister Carolina, a young Polish Pallotine Missionary Sister who lives in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains (where the Tsar and his family were murdered in 1917), and who came to teach about the lay apostolate.

6. Sr. Fabiana, a Polish sister who lives in Baranovich, Belorus, and who is an expert in children's catechesis+ADs-

7. Mr. Marek Machuga, a young Polish married man who is the lay director of our diocesan office of catechesis and family education in Irkutsk+ADs- He does all the preparation and legwork of these workshops. Marek and his wife have been working as lay catechists in Asian Russia for ten years, and their three children were all born here. Now they are going to Paris to join a lay community of Catholic evangelists to re-evangelize France.

8. Mr. Kiril Voitzel, a very young Russian layman, who recently graduated from Lublin Catholic University in Poland and teaches Scriptural Theology and Criticism at the Jesuit Center in Novosibirsk.

Bishop Mazur was also at the workshop for three days. On Wednesday evening he celebrated the sacrament of confirmation for 11 members of the local Khabarovsk parish that hosted the workshop in their newly renovated building.[76]

Legion of Mary

The Legion of Mary was founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1921 where the international headquarters are located. It is an organization of lay volunteers engaged in cooperating �in Mary�s and the Church�s work of crushing the head of the serpent and advancing the reign of Christ�. A local chapter is called a praesidium. The Vladivostok praesidium held its first meeting on January 2, 1993, with eight young men, and Father Dan as spiritual director. Young legionaries go door-to-door with Catholic literature, visit the sick in hospitals, teach catechism to adolescents, and assist the priests.[77] As of February 2001 we currently need a long term Legion of Mary volunteer to help with this spirituality.

Lesozovodsk, City of

The city is on flat land near the Ussury River and was one of the cities hard hit by the series of typhoons of the past summer.[78]

Lesozovodsk, Parish in

The Parish of the Visitation was officially founded and celebrated its First Mass on Nov 4, 1999. The Parish has found a very promising spot to buy for a parish center � a former barbershop with several attached rooms. Currently, the Mass is usually held in the office of the Blind Society. The blind like to attend our Mass, which is in Russian, instead of Old Slavonic as in the Orthodox Church�they don�t understand Old Slavonic. They don�t mind that they don�t have a beautiful church with beautiful icons�they can�t see them anyway! However, the present space is too small, as the parish is growing.[79] The parish of the Visitation is still in need of a sister parish.[80]

The former barbershop was purchased on January 23, 2001.[81] We have begun renovation of the barbershop in Lesozovodsk so that it can serve as the parish center for our Parish of the Visitation. The parish center will be a storefront operation, with a chapel large enough for the parish masses, a small priest's quarters, an office space for CARITAS, a room to receive guests for charitable activities, a kitchen, and a small place for socializing.[82]

The blessing of the chapel of the Visitation in Lesozovodsk took place during the September 25 gathering of the priests of the deanery. Because Lesozovodsk is centrally located between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok the priests gathered there giving the opportunity of blessing the new chapel. Congratulations are in order for our regular benefactors whose regular donations by mail paid for this project. While we sought financing for this project from many sources, it was our daily mail donors who contributed to this project. Much of the work was done by parishioners of Lesozovodsk, especially Vladimir Pisarenko, the parish trustee, who coordinated the project. Even the neighborhood kids got into the act by carrying bricks and shoveling sand. It is a dream come true for the parish to have its own chapel, which also has attached simple overnight quarters for a priest, a room for charitable activities for CARITAS, and space for catechism classes. A big sign outside the outer door of the building welcomes everyone. There is a piece of land not far away which we look at occasionally, thinking about the time when the parish might have its own church building. The present chapel could be the priest's apartment in that future plan. The parish really needs a priest, of course, because it is far from Vladivostok, and the parish territory includes a third of the State of Primorye. There are many young families with children who live in very small one-room apartments in the building near the parish. It would be a paradise for a missioner who would want to work with children.[83]

Living Conditions and Transportation

Under the Communist system (which is still the system that determines how most people live) the maximum amount of space per person was 85 square feet. In Vladivostok, there are three types of housing accommodations: single family, duplex, or quadruplex homes. These were usually old, wooden, usually unpainted, or stucco, with no running water, no central heat, heat from kitchen stove, outside toilet. Communal apartments are common � two or more families share an apartment with one kitchen and one bathroom, with separate bedroom/living rooms. Tower block apartments buildings are the only kind of housing built in the last 30 years. They average 5-12 stories high. The apartments in these buildings generally have 1-4 rooms each, plus a kitchen and bathroom.[84] Most travel within Russia is by train, with very little air travel. The typical Siberian village has only mud streets.

Magadan, City of

Was established in 1939 as an administrative and supply base for the gulag. Magadan is a city of 150,000 with a small Orthodox Church, and a Seventh-day Adventist church under construction. There also is a Catholic church under construction. The priests there are Father Michael Shields from Anchorage and Father David Means from St Louis.

Martyrs

For fifty years, Yadviga Francivna, a founding member of the parish of the Most Holy Mother of God, has sought the burial place of her brother, Stanislaus, killed during the Stalin repression. It was she who found the site of the mass grave near Vladivostok.[85] There is now a memorial on the site.[86] One of the Priests of the Most Holy Mother of God parish was martyred in the gulags.[87]

Romanovka, Parish in

The parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Romanovka was established and the first Mass was celebrated on Feb 4, 1996.

Music

When Fathers Effing and Maurer arrived, they found that no one knew any hymns, and hymnbooks in Russian did not exist. Now the parish has a choir, a music director/organist who has composed beautiful liturgical music in both the Catholic and Russian chant traditions, and a newly published Russian hymnal.[88]

The church purchased a Casio keyboard in August 1992. The first organist was Annya Gafurova, and there were originally seven choir members. Finding good liturgical hymns with Russian words and music notation was difficult, as Latin rite Catholicism had been destroyed in all of Asian Russia, along with most of the music. Sr. Valentina, the Bishop�s housekeeper in Novosibirsk sent a small booklet of Catholic hymns. Then Father Maurer discovered a set of music for all the sung parts of the Russian Mass. He found it at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in St Petersburg. Notre Dame is the property of the French government, and thus was never closed.[89]

Most Holy Mother of God parishioners Victor Anisimov and Yevgeny Kustov composed or translated lyrics in beautifully rhymed and metered Russian for a large number of Christmas carols and other hymns for specific feasts and liturgical seasons. Anna and others composed melodies and chants for many parts of the Russian Mass and other sacramental rites, including one version of the Litany of the Saints. A copy machine was donated by Ignatius Press of San Francisco, on which the first edition of the parish hymnal, �My Soul Magnifies the Lord,� (32 pages) was published in early 1993. It has grown to be 64 pages with 100 songs. In November 1993, Fr. Effing purchased a Technics keyboard in California. In August 1994, supporters donated a computer and printer for a music publishing program, and the Russian Liturgical Music Society of Saint Augustine was founded with the goal of developing and distributing liturgical music in Russian to all the parishes and religious communities in the diocese and to all bishops of Russian speaking Catholics.

In February 1995, Fr. Maurer had made his first visit to the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids, MN, and discovered an unused Rodgers 220-II two-manual organ. The pastor agreed to donate the organ to the Vladivostok parish, and found an old classmate with a trucking company to take it to San Francisco. The organ arrived in Vladivostok in June and was installed several months later. The organ�s arrival was covered by local newspapers, TV, and radio, and was even on the Moscow TV news. Also in June 1995, the organist married and left the job to Marina Shuyanova, who was baptized as a member of the parish in December 1995. Previously, when Fr. Effing was negotiating the return of the church building, he agreed to have organ concerts for the public, once a suitable organ was installed. This is the only concert organ in all of the Russian Far East, even though there is a music institution/university in Vladivostok.[90] In its first year, The Russian Liturgical Music Society of Saint Augustine distributed a 64-page hymnal and over 140 pages of musical accompaniment to 60 member organizations. Also made and distributed 50 copies of two cassette tapes of liturgical music, one of hymns composed or translated by members of the Vladivostok parish and another of Advent and Christmas carols.[91]

Our parish choir will soon celebrate 10 years of existence. Under the direction of Miss Svetlana Naumova, a parishioner, we sing better and better each year. Svetlana is a graduate student in the faculty of choral music at the Vladivostok Academy of Fine Arts. But none of us have a music education. That means none of us can really read music. This year the parish choir's two special new Christmas projects are: 1. the original Latin version of "Puer Natus Est Nobis", which is turning out to be much more difficult than I ever thought. Gregorian chant is very hard for Russians to sing. It is not in their collective unconscious. They did not grow up hearing it. It is very foreign. To do it technically well is tons of work. To do it spiritually well requires deep gifts of faith and feeling. I hope that what we lack in technique we will make up for in faith. 2. a Russian translation of a very pretty German carol from the14th century that I had never heard before. It is "Quem Pastores Laudavere Quibus Angeli Dixere", by John (Johannes?) Rutter, which I translated into rough Russian and Svetlana put into ametric and rhymed "near translation". She found it in another book that I accidentally bought about 5 years ago, "100 Christmas Carols". Because we only have 90 minutes of rehearsal each week (before Sunday Mass) our parish choir can only manage two new pieces each Christmas if we start in September. I am very proud of the parish choir. Two years ago we learned a beautiful Russian version of the Advent Gregorian chant, "Rorate Caeli Desuper", which goes very well with the original music from the Latin version with just a few changes to take into consideration the different stressed syllables of the Russian version. The choir sings it a cappella during communion in the Advent season, and

That's another musical subject: Our parishioner Diana Nam (Korean Russian) graduated in May from the Moscow Conservatory of Music (the creme de la creme of the Russian musical world) with a masters in violin performance. She is very highly talented and disciplined. After graduation she moved back to her provincial burg, Vladivostok, to share her talents with us here in the boonies. She is very humble. She is thinking about a vocation to the religious life To help set the stage for the evening Christmas concerts, which begin after dark, I have ordered 60 candles to be poured into Pyrex glasses. We will set them on the capitals of the pillars to reflect on the Gothic vaults and on the Christmas garlands draped between the columns. I wanted to buy some in the U.S. years ago, but after the first few container shipments we have had to pay huge customs duties on everything we import, so I forgot about it. But now Fr. Myron has been working with people from one of his parishes who make candles, and they promised if I could come up with the Pyrex glasses they can make the candles. We won't be able to do this pillar lighting for our Christmas Eve Mass because we begin in the dark of Advent and proceed immediately to Christmas after the penitential rite. But each of the kids will carry in a glass candle in procession with the Baby Jesus and set them around the crib scene.[92]

First ever CD!! The Joy of Christmas in Russia is a recorded Christmas concert coming to you from the historic Catholic Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God, overlooking beautiful Golden Horn Bay! The vocalists, organist, chamber orchestra, and the entire Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok participated in this wonderful musical compilation. Available through the Mission Office for $15.00 or online on our gifts page.[93]

Leaflet Missal Company in St. Paul, Minnesota will include the Chrismas CD produced by our Vladivostok parish in their Christmas catalog. You will hear the wonderful quality of our Christmas concert of 2001 with the Regina Angelorum Esemble, the Catholic Concert Choir of Vladivostok, and the Ephipany Organ.[94]

Nakhodka , City of

Nakhodka (pronounced Na-hod-ka) is a port city on the Pacific Ocean with a population of 70,000. Nakhodka is the shipping point from the Pacific to and from Russia. The city is about 100 miles east of Vladivostok, about a 5-hour drive.[95]

Nakhodka, Parish in

In January 1995, Fr. Effing celebrated the first Mass in the new parish of Our Lady of the Pacific in Nakhodka. Our Lady of the Pacific is patroness of all who work on the Pacific Ocean. Advertisements were placed in newspapers and 26 people attended, 15 of them Catholic. Bishop Werth accompanied Fr. Effing to Nakhodka for the first baptisms and confirmations in the parish on September 5, 1995.[96] The parish is organizing under Leila Abbasovna, has been officially incorporated and has its official seal. The parish currently does not have a sister parish. Mass celebrated in small auditorium of Music School, and there are now about 50 parishioners. CARITAS has already completed its first project � listing children with invalid or alcoholic parents. CARITAS invited the children for a day of rest on the beach and a barbecue � an innovative idea that was very successful. There is still a need to build a church in Nakhodka, and at present they rent a one-room apartment for storing Mass equipment and for Father to sleep when he is there.[97] The Nakhodka mayor�s office called to suggest that the parish quickly choose a piece of land in the city for the future church before the best land is gone. The fourth Women�s Support Center[98] in our Territory of Primorye was opened in Nakhodka.[99]

Nicolavsk-na-Amur, City of

Nicolaevsk-na-Amur, Parish in

In December 26, 1994, Fr. Effing first visited the city to meet the Catholics there.[101] A parish named Sts. Cyril and Methodius was founded, with Fr. Effing as Pastor. It was our northernmost parish.[102] The parish has now been turned over to the Maryknoll order. Fr. Ben Zweber and Fr. Edward Schoellman are the current priests.

Ordination of the first native russian

It took exactly ten years for the Roman Catholic Church in the Asian part of Russia to produce a native, Russian priest. The Catholic Church was reestablished in Russia by decree of Pope John Paul II in April of 1991. Ten years and a few days later, in June 2001, Vladivostok native and member of the parish of the Most Holy Mother of God, Yevgeny Peregudov, age 28, was ordained to the priesthood for the diocese of Eastern Siberia in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the city of Irkutsk. As a sign of just how important this ordination was to the Vatican, the ordaining prelate was Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the prefect of the Vatican Sacred Congregation for the Clergy. In his homily during the Mass of Ordination Cardinal Castrillon emphasized the significance of this milestone in Siberia where so many thousands of Catholics had suffered for their faith under 71 years of militant, communist repression of religion.

The ordination of Fr. Yevgeny in Irkutsk on Trinity Sunday, June 10, 2001, was a huge ecclesial event for the people of the three-year-old diocese of Eastern Siberia. Assisting Cardinal Castrillon, was diocesan bishop Jerzy Mazur, S.V.D. Since the ordination came at the end of the annual conference for all members of the clergy and religious life in the diocese, virtually all the priests and religious of the diocese were present. With priest and religious representatives from the two Russian seminaries (minor and major) and other guests and friends of the ordinand from Poland and other countries, the total attending the solemn and lengthy ceremony was over 45 priests and 35 sisters and brothers, plus hundreds of the faithful from many parishes of the diocese and from other countries.

The Sunday following his historic priestly ordination in Irkutsk, June 17, Fr. Yevgeny Peregudov celebrated his first Sunday Mass in his home parish of the Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok for family, friends, benefactors and fellow parishioners. Very fittingly it was the parish celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi, which can be considered one of the greatest feasts of the priesthood. At the festive and solemn mass Fr. Yevgeny preached the homily, administered First Communion to a young member of the parish, and presided at the Eucharist procession around the church yard with the traditional four benedictions of the Blessed Sacrament at three stational altars outside and finally at the main altar. Pastor Fr. Myron Effing, CJD and associate pastor Fr. Daniel Maurer, CJD proudly concelebrated Fr. Yevgeny's first mass, as did two priests from Poland, Fr. Christopher who has been Fr. Yevgeny's spiritual director at the major seminary in St Petersburg, and Fr. Leshek, ordained in Poland two weeks earlier. Even the usually rainy Vladivostok spring weather cooperated by confining itself to slightly overcast skies, but not actually letting loose any raindrops during the time of the outdoor procession

Father Yevgeny's mother, Valentina Peregudova, who has not been in good health, was feeling well enough to attend the mass from Russian Island, located off the coast of Vladivostok, and accessible by ferryboat. Mrs. Dee Baltes of Dayton, Ohio, our dear friend and mission benefactor, who began sponsoring Fr. Yevgeny's seminary expenses three years ago, was also present for the joyous occasion. Also present for the mass were members of our parishes in Arsenyev, Romanovka and Ussurisk

After the Eucharist procession and final benediction, Fr. Yevgeny remained in the sanctuary to give his first priestly blessing individually to all present, and to present them with a holy card commemorating the occasion. During the long time that the blessings continued, the choir sang hymns to the Most Holy Mother of God, the patroness of the parish.[103]

Papal Nuncio

Archbishop Bukovsky, an American citizen born in the Slovak Republic, was named as the new papal Nuncio, or Vatican representative, to the Russian government.[104]

Parishes

As of 1994, there were about 200 Catholic parishes in all of Russia. Our two priests in Vladivostok, Fr. Maurer and Fr. Effing, attended to six parishes in three states, covering 544,000 square miles. In Primorye State (66,000 square miles), there are three parishes, Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok, St John the Evangelist in Bolshoy Kamyen, and Our Lady of the Pacific in Nakhodka. In Khabarovsk State (341,000 square miles), the only parish is Immaculate Conception [recently changed from Holy Transfiguration] in the city of Khabarovsk. In Amursky State (141,500 square miles), the two parishes are Holy Transfiguration in the city of Blagoveshensk, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Nocolaevsk-na-Amure. The nearest priest on Russian soil was the pastor of St. James Parish on Sakhalin Island, 800 miles away.[105]

When Fr. Effing first arrived, he celebrated the first Mass in over 50 years at the former Catholic Cathedral of Vladivostok.[106]

Holy Trinity Parish, in the city of Romanovka was added as the 7^th parish in 1996.[107] Annunciation Parish in Arsenyev opened on Feb 21, 1999. Visitation Parish in Lesozovodsk opened on Nov 4, 1999. Ussurisk Parish opened on July 15, 2000

As of 6 February 2001, St Joseph�s parish in Two Rivers area of Vladivostok will be open soon. St Joseph�s parish in Modesto, Ca will be the sister parish. Also, the parish of the Presentation of Our Lady will open soon in Olga. A sister parish is needed.

Transfiguration parish in Khabarovsk, Transfiguration in Blankoveschensk and Sts. Cyril and Methodius parish on Sakhalin Island have been turned over to order priests.

Tuesday after Christmas 2000 Father Maurer went to Most Holy Trinity parish in Romanavka to celebrate Christmas with them. After Holy Mass, they presented a traditional Christmas pageant based on the Gospel story.

Father Michael Shields and Father Means are at the Most Holy Mother of God�s neighbor parish to the North in Magadan.

Parish of St Joseph in Second River

Peregudov, yevgeny (Father)

Father Yevgeny ("Eugene" in English) was born in Vladivostok on April 7, 1972, the son of Yuri and Valentina Peregudov. He was raised on Russian Island, a military enclave just off the coast of the city center. Although his father was a military officer, his mother and grandmother were believing Christians. In those days, however, there were no churches in this Russian Far Eastern city of almost one million inhabitants, so there was no possibility of practicing one's faith. After the advent of "perestroika" (restructuring) in the late 1980's, and the opening of a church in Vladivostok, Yevgeny (Zhenya for short) was baptized. He became a member of the newly reborn Catholic parish in 1993. After more than a year of participating in the life of our parish he was accepted into the minor seminary in Novosibirsk by Bishop Joseph Werth, S.J. in 1994. The minor seminary program was designed to last two years, but because he would have been the only member of his class in the second year, and because he was recognized to be a well-prepared and mature candidate, he was allowed to enroll in the major seminary after completing only one year of minor seminary studies. The only major seminary in Russia, Mary Queen of Apostles, had opened in temporarily

quarters in the capital, Moscow, just one year earlier, so in September 1995 the priests and people of the Vladivostok parish staged a formal send-off of Zhenya to Moscow, a 10 hour flight from Vladivostok, to become a major seminarian. A month later we received a phone call from him in St Petersburg (a 12-hour train ride away from Moscow). Surprised, we asked him what he was doing there. In an unexpected move, the government had returned to the Catholic Church the second floor of the pre-Revolutionary seminary building in St Petersburg, so the government had evicted all faculty and seminarians from their temporary quarters in Moscow. Living conditions in the returned building were primitive but not as primitive as in Moscow, where for a few weeks Zhenya had lived in what he described as a dog house, actually a small, wooden utility trailer designed for use as a meal wagon on a construction site. Over the course of his six years in the seminary in St Petersburg Zhenya saw many changes and improvements, including the gift from the U.S. Bishops Conference of modern, institutional kitchen facilities made possible by the yearly collection for aid to the Church in Eastern Europe and Russia, and the complete restoration of the large and beautiful Gothic chapel in the seminary building, which is now used as one of only three Catholic parish church buildings in the city of 4 million people.[108]

Pilgrimages, annual youth

Our Youth Pilgrimage was held the week of July 2. The group of 15 parishioners from different parishes walked from the City of Ussurisk to the City of Arsenyev�a nine day trip. This activity is especially good for the teenagers who are too old for the children�s camp, but not old enough to attend the Far Eastern Catholic Youth Conference. The theme that they considered and prayed about each day of the trip is �The Family�. Each day they read some particular text of the Bible and talked about some aspect of family life. The report Fr. Myron received when they returned home was that it was very interesting. They were all very enthusiastic about their experience, even though they walked in the rain for three of the days! Of course blisters were a problem, too�wet shoes are especially bad news.[109]

From June 25-July 3 we held our annual Pilgrimage, when parishioners from several parishes walked nine days from the Parish of the Nativity in Ussurisk to the Parish of the Annunciation in Arsenyev. For some reason there were fewer pilgrims this year, but the weather was the best ever, with sunshine every day! The pilgrims concentrated on the graces of the sacraments during their prayer, their conversations, and private prayer in the hours of travel between nights spent in tents. Fr. Dominic Kim came from Ussurisk for mass along the way. No one suffered from blisters this year, as a kind of miracle, because it was a great cause of suffering in previous years. Every year the pilgrims are very grateful about the graces they receive during the pilgrimage, and for the new friendships that were fostered. There is a proposal that next year there be a second pilgrimage-on bicycles. It would be fun to have some Americans join us in next year's pilgrimage.[110]

From the same issue of Vladivostok Sunrise Fr Myron reported the death of Fr. Frederico Gonzalez-Fierro Botas, S.J., 59. Fr. Botas died as the result of being in a one-car accident which occurred on June 28 on the highway near Michaelovka, Primorsky Krai, a two hour�s drive from Vladivostok. He was riding in the back seat of the parish car with Fr. Evgenie Peregudov and two seminarians. They were on their way to say mass for the pilgrims who were walking from the city of Ussurisk to the Arsenyev. The freak accident occurred when the car spun out of control after cresting a small knoll, hitting the shoulder, and then rolling over several times at the side of the road. The other three passengers were not hurt and walked away from the accident. The car was a total loss.

Pilgrimages, Foreign

On October 17 we had our first foreign pilgrimage visit us. It was a cruise ship with 55 Marian pilgrims aboard who were visiting Marian shrines in Japan, Korea, and Vladivostok. Cruise Ship pilgrims were met at the wharf by a Russian Band. We spent the day together, visiting the Orthodox convent (Mother Superior Maria of the Orthodox Convent in Sedanka welcomed the pilgrims with flowers and told them the history of her convent), praying and having mass at our Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God, and buying souvenirs. We put out some of the knitted and crocheted items made by our elderly parishioners, and they sure sold like hotcakes! The sales gave added income to those who otherwise live on a small Russian pension. In fact, Lilia Timofeevna, who coordinates the project in the parish, was so exited to tell me that, due to the sales, CARITAS had "covered all our Christmas needs for children in our parish!" I'm really happy that our Russian parishioners are starting to collaborate in fundraising. Wow! Will we see the day when we could be financially independent? It is going to take a while, but it has to be the ideal for every missionary. The day has to come when any parish is no longer a mission parish, but self-supporting in its own right. By the way, most of the pilgrims were Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans.[111]

Popov Island

Popov Island has 2,000 residents and is a two-hour boat ride from Vladivostok. There is only one boat per day, leaving Popov in the morning and returning in the evening. Residents were sent there from all over the Soviet Union when the government opened a fish-canning factory. Eventually the factory closed, leaving the residents with no means of support. The mayor, Gennady Fateyevich, got the factory running again, for the residents. The island has a 20-bed hospital, one doctor, a public school, and a poor budget. It has beautiful beaches, and plenty of clean water and air. However, with the factory crippled, most of the younger people moved away, leaving the elderly, most of them on pensions. In 1994, 3% of the population died. The mayor is seeking ways to develop the island, particularly for tourism, as it is an especially scenic area.

In response to the mayor�s request for medical help, CARITAS recruited volunteer physicians to visit Popov and serve one day free of charge. Now, one specialist a month visits the island. CARITAS has also sent the residents boxes of clothing, provided by benefactors at the Little Rock Air Force Base, St Jude�s Parish in Jacksonville, AR, and Nativity Parish in St. Paul, MN. The mayor has also said that he would like to provide a chapel where any priest or minister can come hold services, but no priests are currently available to help. The mayor is also exploring the possibility of developing a mushroom industry on the island, since there are underground rooms on the island left over from the war. Vladivostok and Japan would be excellent markets for the mushrooms, and the subterranean agriculture would not threaten the beaches.[112]

Potopenko, Anastacia

Anastacia is the parish secretary of the Most Holy Mother of God parish. She founded the Sunday school program for children. Began CARITAS Primorye, in 1993.[113] Was voted one of three board members of CARITAS Russia, the other two being priests.

Povrovka, City of

Povrovka, parish in

Fr. Effing celebrated the first Mass in the new parish, yet to be named, on June 21, 2001. It will most likely be named the Presentation of the Child Jesus and already has 50 baptized Catholics. The monthly Mass is held in the caf� owned by one of the parishioners.[115]

Prisoner�s Rehabilitation Center

The women�s prison in Primorye Territory is in a small village, so released prisoners usually go to Vladivostok to begin a new life. They can�t find work because they don�t have a permanent address, which is required for work in Russia. The Rehabilitation Center is a very small apartment near the used clothing store where women can live temporarily upon release from prison and officially register their address. Until they find work, they can help in the store, mending and cleaning clothing. They can be trained in new secretarial skills at the store through the use of several donated computers, and they receive one meal per day from CARITAS.[116]

In Khabarovsk, parishioner Alexei Hartman visits the prison regularly and helps individual women as they are released. Sometimes it is clothing, a ticket home, or simply advice. The prison is so happy with Alexei�s work that they have named him to the Honorary Council of the prison. At his induction it was said that many churches and organizations have sent aid to the prison, but then they usually disappear. Alexei and the Catholic Church are the first to take a regular on-going approach to helping in the prison. It is hoped that there can be a prisoner�s rehabilitation center in Khabarovsk as is in operation in Vladivostok.[117]

Pro-Life

The Evangelization Director of the Most Holy Mother of God Parish, Dennis Bondaryev, and Yuri Belozorov, a parishioner and middle school science teacher have developed a 6-hour seminar for high school girls (3-hour for boys) on abortion, contraception, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). Before the seminar, students take a short quiz to determine their attitudes about abortion and premarital sex. Then Yuri describes conception and fetal development with the help of ultrasound videos from the US. Ultrasound is virtually unknown in Russia, and students view the video with awe, Valerie Walatka (full-time lay volunteer from Anchorage) gives the next talk on consequences of abortion, including Post-Abortion Syndrome. Then follows a powerful 7-minute video about abortion. The following week, students are given the same quiz. However, their responses have so far been dramatically different from those of the first quiz�support for abortion falls considerably. The second session covers contraception, problem pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and natural family planning. The public school administration has been helpful and supportive of the seminar presentations, and assists by separating students by age and gender for the presentations. Several schools have requested the seminars.[118]

The effectiveness of the seminars is due largely to the cooperation of school administrators, who have given �Choose Life� freedom to present the complete truth, regardless of how unpleasant it may be. Videos include not only ultrasound footage, the German production Life Before Birth, and the Family of the Americas Foundation cartoon If You Love Me, Show Me, but also Dr. Bernard Nathanson�s classic Silent Scream and its gruesome sequel Eclipse of Reason as well as the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform�s short but shocking Hard Truth. No student is forced to watch any of the videos.[119]

In summer 1995, Most Holy Mary Mother of God parish�s pro-life group �Choose Life� received permission to place educational displays in several women�s clinics around Vladivostok. The displays, �The Miracle of Life vs. Abortion� and �Natural Family Planning� were placed in early July in the lobby of a clinic just a few blocks from the church. Human Life International has also provided posters, pamphlets and other information. Yuri and Victoria Belozyrovov are well known in Vladivostok for their promotion of birth under water; both of their boys were delivered under water. Yuri is a biology teacher and Victoria is a geographer.[120]

Publications and Literature

Because of the lack of Russian Catholic literature to distribute, Fathers Effing and Maurer decided to print their own. The very first booklet published by the mission was entitled �The Words and Actions of the Parishioners at Holy Mass.� Since there was no official Russian translation of the Mass at the time, they decided to print their own �missalette� so the people understood and could respond to what was going on.[121] They printed newsletters and brochures on alcoholism. Then the Legion of Mary printed 50,000 copies of its brochure to give to people on the streets. Family of the Americas licensed the parish to translate and print its first full-color production, a booklet about natural family planning called �Love and Fertility� � 5000 copies. Marian Helpers of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, agreed to help print their booklet about how to say the rosary.[122]

They have so far distributed Catholic Literature and Bibles to the Russian Far East and throughout the Russian Republic to more than 75,000 addresses. The parish also produces correspondence courses in �Introduction to Christianity�, �A Thorough Course in the Bible�, �Christianity and Islam�, �Children�s Bible Course�, and a 12-lesson catechetical correspondence course in preparation for baptism and confirmation.[123]

The Catholic Faith by Mail correspondence course �Introduction to Christianity� has interested many prisoners across Russia.[124] It consists of 12 Lessons written by Fr. Myron Effing and correspondent Victor Anisimov. English translations can be obtained from Mission Office. The course is also available over email.

The Faith and Life series has been translated but not yet published due to lack of funds.[125]

There is a great need for literature. During all of the Communist years, the Church has not been translating anything into Russian. Now, there are no good Russian bibles. There are no Vatican II documents. Many of the people who are interested in being Catholics are intellectuals � university teachers � and they want to read the original literature. They want to read Pope John Paul II�s encyclicals, but these are not available in Russian. Another problem is that the Russian language before the revolution is different from the language after the revolution. During the revolution, the Communists changed letters of the alphabet. They changed grammar construction. They removed any references to God from the dictionary. Often, people send things in Russian, but the present Russians cannot read them, because they are in Old Russian.[126]

Vladivostok Sunrise is a bi-monthly English-language newsletter for foreign donors edited by Fr. Effing. Each issue contains historical events, human interest stories, and documents the revival of the Catholic Church in the Far East of Russia.

�Prinyat Zhizhni� is the monthly bulletin for the women�s support centers and those interested in pro-life issues. It is edited by Kristina Pavlova

�Zaya Vladivostoka� is the monthly bulletin to all Catholics in our Deanery, a combination parish and regional bulletin. It is edited by Yuri Bylozorov.

Religion

When Russia opened up to religion, everything from the legitimate to the bizarre came.[127] In 1990 there were five religions registered in Primorsky Krai. By 1996 there were 27 religions, 130 churches, temples, and other religious centers registered. Most are lead by foreigners. The older denominations (Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists) are all suffering because of the poor behavior of foreign missionaries. They come in with costly color literature, banners, and a big show. They attract a big crowd, tape everything, and then leave.

The influx has alarmed government officials, prompting the Krai administration to adopt new regulations on foreign missionaries in February of 1996 to protect people from aggressive recruitment tactics. However, the strongest reaction is from the Russian Orthodox Church, which views foreign mission work as an affront to its long-awaited religious freedom. Under the Krai administration laws, foreign missionaries may not, for example, pass religious leaflets to minors on the street and they must seek accreditation with the Krai administration once a year. For religions new to the region, that can mean a stringent review before the administration�s Expert Council on Religion � a process that can take up to six months. The Unification Church (Moonies) has been denied accreditation three times. The council is reluctant to approve the group because it is not Christian as it asserts in its application, and because of complaints from parents of young church members. The council consists of 27 representatives from Primorye faiths, and gives all religious groups equal consideration. The accreditation process simply helps the department stay informed. Yuri Belozyorov, a high school biology teacher and Most Holy Mother of God�s evangelization director is a member of the Krai administration�s Expert Council on Religion.[128]

Religious

Currently there are 2 orders of Sisters in the area. One order from Korea has 3 Sisters in Vladivostok. They are learning Russian. The other order, The Sisters of St Ann from Spain currently teach Spanish at the University, work with the elderly, and teach Sunday school. They have a postulant who is a Russian native working in the women�s centers.

Another sister is going to join us soon. She is from the Sisters of St. Paul from Seoul, Korea. We are expecting Sister Many Catherine from St. Paul, Minnesota, too�she will help us with the university parish.[129]

Roman Catholicism in Russia

The Missionary Agency FIDES says that there are close to a half million Catholics of the Latin Rite in Russia, although official government statistics speak of almost 1.5 million. Of these, between 50,000 and 60,000 are in touch with the Church. Most of the population, almost 60%, professes the orthodox Christian faith; Sunday Mass attendance is about 5%. Protestant communities comprise about 2% to 3% of the population, as compared to the Muslims (Caucasians and Asians) 15 %. There are also 2 million Buddhists and 12 million Jews. Over the years, pagan and neo-pagan beliefs also increase. Also active are sects, including New Age, Scientology, the Moonies, Jehovah�s Witnesses, Mormons, and Aum Sinrikyo. Over these years, the Catholics have succeeded in reopening about 190 parishes, surpassing the number prior to the first persecution, which was close to 150.There are just over 200 priests working in the four administrations, the great majority being foreign, especially Polish. Many of the priests belong to religious communities including Salesians, Franciscans, Jesuits, and Divine Word missionaries; Nuns are present in almost all the parishes. Missionaries of ecclesial movements, such as the Focolares, Neo-Catechumenals, and Comminion and Liberation are also present.

A seminary, opened in 1993, was re-established in the historical headquarters of St Petersburg in 1995. In addition there is a biennial pre-seminary in Novosibrisk, and a theology collage for the laity in Moscow with affiliates in St Petersburg, Kalingrad, Novosibrisk, Saratov and Orenburg. Caritas, the institution supported by the church, which channels a good part of the aid for integral development, is extended throughout the territory. There is a Catholic weekly newspaper, several monthly and quarterly publications, a few publishing groups, a St. Paul�s book store in the center of Moscow, a TV center in Novosibrisk, and two radio stations one in St. Petersburg and the other in Moscow.[130]

Romanovka, City of

Romanovka, Parish in

The parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Romanovka was established and the first Mass was celebrated on Feb 4, 1996. Fr. Maurer is the pastor.[131] On Tuesday after Christmas 2000, Father Maurer visited the parish to celebrate Christmas with them. After the Mass they presented a traditional Christmas pageant based on the Gospel story. There were over 50 people present, and lots of them were children. After Mass he gave out candy to the kids.[132]

The Parish has found and purchased a suitable apartment with the help of its sister parish, St Philip Benizi of Oregon City, Oregon.[133] Largest Mass in the history of the parish and probably the first religious service ever for most of the people in attendance was the funeral of Voleslav �The Catholic� Tischinski who died on March 31, 2001. His funeral on the following Wednesday was the first funeral for a baptized Catholic in Romanovka.[134]

Romanovka Catholics have formed a steering committee to plan how best to build a church in their small, economically depressed village located almost three hours by electric train from Vladivostok. We envision a simple brick structure with space enough in the nave for 100-150 people at Mass. The same space will also be used for parish social functions, so the sanctuary should be able to be closed off by a sliding partition or curtain. There should also be a vestibule, public bathrooms, a kitchen, a sacristy and a room for a watchman to live in. Since catechism classes can continue to be held in the parish apartment (purchased more than a year ago with help from Romanovka's sister parish St Philip Benizi in Redland, Oregon) we will not need to build classrooms in the new structure. That will cut down on the cost considerably.[135]

Russian Catholic Church

The Russian Catholic Church is a very small Rite of the Catholic Church that uses the traditions and liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church but maintains communion with Rome. For info on the Latin Rite in Russia, see Roman Catholicism in Russia.

Sainthood

We have 7 candidates for sainthood. The Holy Father has asked the Russian church to search out possible saints before the eye witnesses are dead. Bishop Karol Slivosky[136], Father Gregory Yurkevich[137] and 5 parishioners killed while praying the rosary at what was the last religious ceremony at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Mother of God for 50 years. Investigation into these candidates is underway, but hindered by lack of funding. Two trips have been made to Poland and Eastern Europe seeking information at archives. Several articles have been written about the Martyrs.[138] The cemetery where the Bishop is believed to be buried has been professionally searched, and two trips were made to question eyewitnesses to the Bishop�s funeral.

Seminarians

Victor Anisimov, who previously had been a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and before that was enrolled in the Hare Krishna Movement, became Catholic and was confirmed on January 3, 1993. He became a founding member of the Legion of Mary, translates hymns, helps with the liturgy, and prepares booklets for publication

Evgeni Peregudov became Catholic when he was confirmed on Easter 1993. He is now a member of the Legion of Mary and works as a server and as a guard of the church building. A pre-seminary program has been developed at the Far Eastern Technical Institute and Father Maurer teaches an introductory Bible course.[139] He entered the preseminary in Novosibirsk, and finally Queen of Apostles Seminary in St Petersburg.

In spring of 1996, Evegnie Peregudov completed his second year of studies for the priesthood, and his first year at the diocesan seminary in St Petersburg. His ordination will be in 2001. He is one of 32 seminarians from three dioceses: Moscow, Novosibrisk, and Kazakhstan. According to seminary rules, he is to have some practical pastoral experience in a local parish. Fr. Effing decided he would work in the new parish in Romanavka, two hours from Vladivostok. There he gave instruction in the Faith, preparing 12 women and children for baptism and confirmation.[140] With the Ordination to the deaconate of Evegnie Peregudov on June 25, 2000, the dream of the decade has been realized � our first Russian parishioner to be ordained! As a diocesan deacon he will remain in our diocese. Bishop Mazur was the ordaining Bishop.[141]

Evegnie Peregudov was ordained to the priesthood in Irkutsk on June 10, 2001. He celebrated his first Sunday Mass in his home parish of the Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok on June 17, 2001 during the parish celebration of the Feast of corpus Christsi.[142]

Oleg Nicolaevich Yelchaninov took simple private vows on December 12, 2000 as a member of the Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord. Under the direction of Fr. Myron Effing as novice master and the spiritual direction of Fr. Daniel Maurer, he completed his yearlong studies and novitiate project, which was the study and review of the translation of documents relating to the history and life of communities of Canons Regular. Brother Oleg is interested in the History of the Liturgy, and plans to do more study in this area. Meanwhile he is responsible for the liturgical fixtures and preparations for holydays in Vladivostok.[143]

Our three seminarians for 2001-2002 are Alexander Laposhenko, Brother Oleg Yelchaninov, and Evgenie Balanov. The three are parishioners. Evgenie Balanyov left for the diocesan seminary in St Petersburg, Brother Oleg Yelchaninov left for the theological institue in Slovakia where he will be able to get acquainted with other orders of Canons Regular, and Alexander Laposhenko left for the theological institute in Lvov, the Ukraine, which is associated with the Ukrainian rite Catholic church.[144]

Our seminarian who is a member of our new religious community, the Canons Regular of Jesus the Lord, returned from Slovakia to renew his visa. Brother Oleg Yelchaninov really looks healthy, and seems very satisfied to be in the seminary in Kosice, Slovakia. His first assignment there was to learn the Slovak language, which he seems to have done well enough to begin attending regular theology courses as soon as he returns to Europe. The Rector of the St Charles Seminary in Kosice is proposing a three-year program to prepare Brother Oleg for ordination. The program can be shorter because Brother Oleg already has university work behind him, was a business man with a lot of life experience, and has also completed two years of studies with us, including his novitiate program. Thank you for your prayers for vocations and for your support of Brother Oleg.[145]

Second River, Parish in

The statements which follow from parishioners of the new parish in Second River reflect how a new Christian community begins and grows. Yelena Zagalskaya: The road in front of us led to the church in Vladivostok. "Momma, let's go there!" said our daughter. We went and stayed forever. Three years ago the whole family was baptised, momma, papa, our 10-year-old daughter and our year and a half year old son. Going to church was always a holiday. Our daughter began Sunday school. Fate had us move to another part of the city far away, so we went to church less frequently. We knew we had to do something about it. Suddenly there was news that there would be a new parish of St Joseph, and right in our part of the city! And already every Saturday we are meeting in nice and comfortable surroundings. We hear the news about the big parish, but now we also have news about our little parish. Doubtlessly the main advantage of a new parish is that we are part of its beginning; we can see how the baby develops from the beginning, how new traditions are developed, and we can be part of those new traditions. We parishioners all know each other, not only by face, but by name, we know the joys and sorrows of each one, and we understand each other. It's like being part of a big family which even breathes together during prayer, which gathers together to honor the Father. Of course Anton Yanovich will be here, a kind, generous, and faithful person; Nina Arzamastseva, our joyful host will be here to help us and challenge us; servers Igor and Dima will be here, so different from each other, but so harmoniously ordering our meetings; Julia and Olga are our teachers and the souls of our gatherings. And then there is my noisy 15-year old Yanik and thoughtful Olga who is preparing for confirmation, and then me myself with my difficult questions for a 13-year old. And everything is fine when we hear the bell-like voice of little Sasha calling us to attention. How good it is to gather together, to talk about God, to pray together, to sing together with the accompaniment of the keyboard. Our kids can feel the foundations of Christianity, and we are learning so naturally together with them our happy faith, with mutual understanding and life in Christ.

Julia Zavodinskaya: I'm very glad that there is a second parish in Vladivostok at last. Our parish was just too big and one parish isn't enough. Our newborn parish is still very small, but we are all happy with it, and we even sing songs already. It seems to me that it is very symbolic that our parish is named "St Joseph's" which draws us to be one family, even though it is sad that we are still so small if friendly. So I'm asking all who live in Second River to come and join in our baby community. The owner of the apartment who so happily receives us every Saturday at 4pm-Nina Michailovna-is like a mother to us all, and her pies are delicious! Our parish was founded only recently, but we already have some traditions. Like for example we read the Liturgy of the Hours, we sing songs (for which we even have our own keyboard) we drink tea, we share our joys and sorrows, and we know each other better, which means we are becoming a real Christian family. Dimitri Ovcharenko: I'm a parishioner of Most Holy Mother of God parish, so I belong to the "central" parish. Everybody sees me there every Sunday because I'm a server at mass helping Fr Myron and Fr Daniel. Recently I started to attend St Joseph's and I'd like to say a few words about what I've seen at the new parish. It has a very friendly open atmosphere. The soul of the parish is its active leader Olga Zotova. A cup of tea gives a unique chance for dialog and discussions about various subjects. But we don't forget about the most important-why we came together-to talk to God. We pray the Liturgy of the Hours and the rosary. Olga and Julia teach Sunday school for the kids. We are thinking to begin doing the Liturgy of the Word, and we are thinking about beginning classes for adults. Everybody tries to take lively part in the development of the parish. I've sometimes been amazed about the low attendance at Sunday Mass at the big parish because it is so far away for many parishioners, but by attending the parish in Second River I've seen a new aspect of the need to be with God: We want to "get", but don't want to "give" in return. In Second River I've seen how we need to use and multiply our talents and use them for the good of the church and for God. Olga Zotova: It is always difficult to start something new, especially if it is something completely new for you. When Fr Myron started to talk about the need to start a new parish, it was difficult for me to grasp what it would look like and how to start it in general. I remember well the day when, after Sunday Mass, Fr Myron for the first time gathered all those living in Second River. We all looked vacantly at each other and couldn't even gather our thoughts to ask a question. But after our first independent meeting of future parishioners of St Joseph I was amazed to discover that all those who were to be part of the new foundation were such remarkably friendly and communicative people. It seems to me we immediately understood each other, and our first shock and discomfort immediately left us. Gradually the relationships between parishioners became easier and warmer. At our second meeting we started to pray together, we started working with the children, and soon a small organ appeared. We can't overestimate the contribution to the founding of our parish of Nina Michailovna Arzamastseva, because without her we wouldn't have a place to meet and to pray. The value of our small parish is now obvious to me: All the parishioners live near one another, we have many common interests, and common problems that we can solve. We feel it if someone doesn't come to our meeting because we really feel like one big family. A line from the Bible comes to mind: "If God doesn't build the house, those who build it build in vain." All that we have today is thanks to God's help. Without God we would have accomplished nothing.

All the same, we'd like to say a word of thanks, first to Fr Myron for his original missionary initiative, to Fr Daniel that we have music to sing and to play, to Yuri Byelozorov for ideas and good advice, and for all those who remember us in prayer, especially our sister parish in Modesto, California. The only parish in Vladivostok until now has the name "Most Holy Mother of God". St Joseph was the spouse of the Virgin Mary, and her unflinchable friend and helper, chosen by God to be concerned about the Savior of the world and His mother. Today we are hoping for the patronage of St Joseph, his help and support for our new parish, which becomes the second, but hopefully not the last, of the new Catholic parishes in our city.[146]

Renovation is rapidly proceeding on the five-room apartment that we bought for the first location of St Joseph's Parish in Second River. Orthodox priest Fr. Valerie is coordinating the work of parish volunteers and professional builders who are making the necessary changes, which include removing some walls to make a chapel, moving the kitchen to the other end of the apartment, making a new entrance on the street level, doubling the restroom, and making an altar and tabernacle. Meanwhile the city is telling us that land is fast disappearing in that part of the city, so if we will want to have a church some day in that area, we must buy land now. Benefactors, this is your chance!

We just opened a Women's Support Center at St Joseph's parish in Second River, but that is not all. It seems that it will be the first center to have a telephone! So CARITAS is already doing advertising, using the parish telephone as a "hotline". People can call from anywhere in the city, and the St Joseph's Center can refer women to the Women's Support Center closest to their home. Sort of an unexpected step forward.[147]

Sister Parishes

The first sister parish for Most Holy Mother of God Parish was Holy Trinity Parish in Ehrenstein,Germany, founded in 1477. It is in the Archdiocese of Cologne. The current pastor is the Crosier Father Bernhard Leisenheimer, OSC. The Crosiers� full name is the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross.[148] Five of our Russian parishes are waiting to have a sister parish in America. St Joseph�s in Second River will be adopted by St Joseph�s in Modesto, CA. Presentation is another new parish we are opening in Olga; Nativity in Ussurick; Our Lady of the Pacific in Nakohodka; St John the Evangelist in Bolshoi Kamen, and Visitation in Lesozavodsk.[149]

Speaker�s Bureau

We are developing a speaker�s bureau to spread knowledge of the Russian mission to US parishes. We welcome any invitation to speak at your church, and more information on the speaker�s bureau is available on our website. If you feel you have a gift of public speaking and would be interested in joining our efforts, please contact us at the mission office 651-690-5139.

Special Events

Holy Mass was held at the memorial in the woods where many Catholics were executed in the 1930s.[150]

The first Pastoral Conference was held beginning October 3, 1994. Bishop Werth, with a broken leg, was not able to attend, but asked Fr. Effing to take his place. Fr. Effing therefore gave all the keynote conferences for the first day. The conference was held about 50 miles out of Novosibirsk at the former Young Pioneers (government-supported �boy scouts�) summer camp. The Most Holy Mother of God parish had an excellent exhibit, and also provided music for all the Masses. Fr. Maurer also brought copies of the hymnal and produced more copies for those who attended.[151]

Staff of Most Holy Mother of God Church

Treasurer: Mrs. Malvina Stanislavna Grigoriva, Borisenko 92-9, 690080, Vladivostok Russia

Evangelization Director: Mr. Dennis Anatolyevich Bondaryev, Ruskaya 84-2, 690069 Vladivostok, Russia

Social Service Director: Mrs. Veta Yuozovna Ramm, Shilkinskaya 15-112, 690014 Vladivostok, Russia

Building Director: Mr. Andre Andrevich Popok, Volodarskovo 22, 690001, Vladivostok, Russia

Summer Camp

Our first parish weeklong summer camp was held in August 1995 on Popov Island, with 27 children, ages 8-17. Activities included sports, games, prayer, singing, swimming in the ocean, hikes, skits, and competitions. Kids said they wished it had gone on for a month. The camp was at the island�s school, with no shower facilities, and daily electrical outages. Kids slept on classroom floors on mattresses rented from the Popov fish cannery. School cooks prepared three meals and a snack each day.

This was the first time the Russian staff had heard of such a thing as a religious camp. The Office to Aid the Church in Eastern Europe provided a grant to pay for the expenses of the Russian staff, and 15 young Catholic Japanese men and women from the Diocese of Yokohama who volunteered as counselors. Also Fr. Taka and Fr. Ghandi from CARITAS Japan helped. Sister Maria, a Franciscan nun, also from the Yokohama Diocese organized morning and evening prayers, and led singing. The Camp Director was Yuri Belozyorov, from the Most Holy Mother of God parish evangelization program. The Russian Navy transported the children�s belongings the two miles from the seaport to the school. The cooks arranged to purchase seafood from their fishermen friends. The final night included a hike through the woods and along the shore, then a shish-kabob dinner and a campfire.[152]

The second summer camp was held in August of 1996, with 33 children, ages 10-16 attending. Children who had attended the previous year encouraged siblings, friends, and even neighbors to attend. Many who came did not know any prayers whatsoever. The camp included Masses, teaching sessions, plays, Karate lessons, a campfire, and a nighttime trip to the beach. Sister Maria, seminarians, and priests from Japan helped keep the camp organized and running.[153]

The setting for the Jubilee Year Children�s Catechetical Camp of our seven parishes in Primorsky Territory was beautiful Lake Hanka. The theme for the camp was the Parables of Jesus. The Sisters of Charity of St. Ann organized daily prayers and services, and parents and catechists of our parishes operated the camp. Father Effing was able to be present to say Mass on one day.[154]

A Permanent place to gather

An anonymous Minnesota donor has donated more than half the cost of buying a camp for our use on a permanent basis. On February 26th Fr. Dan signed a contract for the purchase of a camp in Sod-Gorod (Garden City), a suburb of Vladivostok easily accessible by my car and by train. It is also accessible for all of our other Primorsky parishes. The property will serve us many years, not only as a camp for our children and youth programs, but also as a place for conferences, meetings, rehabilitation programs, and retreats. The person making the initial donation said that he read about the efforts to restore the Catholic Church in the Russian Far East in the local Catholic diocesan paper and wanted his donation to benefit children.[155] Sandra Sonnen of the Mission Office in Minnesota noted that the camp was formerly an old communist Pioneer camp which had been used to indoctrinate the youth into the Communist way of thinking.[156]

Tackling the Problem of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse

Alcoholics Anonymous is making strides in our Primorsky State of Russia. Sergei Yakovlev, a doctor of biological science, has been instrumental in getting many groups started and in encouraging them to continue. He often works as a consultant at the government alcoholic and narcotic treatment centers, which are trying to use more spiritual and psychological methods of treatment rather than relying on purely physical methods which were in vogue during the Communist era. Dr. Yakovlev has incorporated the Vladivostok branch of a Moscow organization named "Say No to Alcohol and Drug Abuse." The organization is trying to open an office for consultation, and to promote a rehabilitation program based on the 12 steps of AA. Recently it was proposed that "Say No" might be able to acquire a building on the former military base on Russian Island to use for a rehabilitation center. It is located in a beautiful woods just a block away from the ocean. The building currently has eight apartments, of which only three are in use due to the closing of the base. One apartment is occupied by an elderly lady on pension who could easily continue to guard the building from theft-a real problem in Russia-and have some additional income. Another lady who also lives there would be very capable of serving as the local AA contact person and as building superintendent. That leaves six apartments which can be reorganized to serve for client living space and program space. We are all hoping that these dreams can be realized. Some funds will be needed for converting the space for use as a rehab center, especially upgrading the bathrooms and kitchen, as well as buying furniture.[157]

The problem is of massive proportions in Russia. Besides Vladivostok where AA existed long ago, there are now working AA groups in Nakhodka, Arsenyev, Ussurisk, and Lesozovodsk. Dr. Yakovlev and Father Effing have been giving lectures on alcoholism and drug abuse at many schools and colleges is all those cities. They have incorporated a local organization to deal with rehabilitation by twelve steps�a branch of a Moscow organization called �No To Alcoholism and Narcotics�. Father Effing is on the Board of Directors of that organization. I�ve (Father Myron) has been busy with preparing speeches and talks for the universities in Vladivostok and in Nakhodka. The university people are excited to get to know an educated priest who is a scientist. The Communists told them that only ignorant, uneducated people believe in God. At the Marine University here in Vladivostok my topic was "Early Warning Signs of Alcoholism". Hopefully that will be helpful to the university teachers. My topic in Nakhodka was "Religion and the State", which was for a congress of professors and students, and it sparked a lot of discussion. Of course it is fun for me, and I'm so glad that I now speak Russian well enough to give lectures in the universities (with an American accent and many mistakes, of course). I've been a teacher my whole life, so these activities are refreshing for me.[158]

TELEVISION

Ever since Fr. Effing arrived in February 1992, he felt there should be Catholic television programming in the area. A new Catholic, Denis Bondaryev, began searching out Catholic and general Christian programming, and also began producing material locally. He and Fr. Effing visited the local commercial TV station, Channel 3, and got a weekly 90-minute prime-time program every Saturday from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. With it, they reach a half million homes for only $50.00 an hour. This was only 10% of the normal cost of airtime. Commercial programming was relatively new at the time. They signed a contract for one year and began broadcasting in October 1992.[159]

Tenth Anniversary of Work in Russia

On January 11th we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our work in Russia. We couldn't have gotten very far in our work without the great support and interest of our benefactors. And you are too numerous to name!

Especially we want to remember the kind help of Archbishop Francis Hurley of Anchorage and of Mr. Ray Rzeszut who took such good care of our stateside needs for so many years. We also have to remember our first major benefactor, Fr. Joseph Fessio of Ignatius Press in San Francisco who gave us electronic mail and our first automobile.

We should include our Russian benefactors, too, especially our first translator Igor Davydov, our faithful driver Anatoly Stashkov, Anastacia Potopenko the CARITAS director, and our helper with evangelization Yuri Byelozorov-just to name a few again! And again there are many, many more.

If the first ten years have been years of evangelization and parish formation (there being already 20 parishes in the area that we first served), surely the second ten years will be a time of building projects! Parishes simply have to have churches! Church buildings should not be in the first place in our agenda, because the Church is really the People of God, and so evangelization and catechetical work will still be in first place, but people have bodies and bodies have to have a place to be!

We have struggled to try to improve our fundraising right here in Russia-actually we have paid more attention to this than anyone else that I know, but the harvest is so sudden, so unexpected, and so promising that we simply must make progress.

I've asked our stateside mission coordinator Sandra Sonnen to begin a special fund for church building projects. 150 million people suddenly need church buildings. The Orthodox and the Protestants, as well as the Moslems are also stretching themselves to build churches, to have vocations, to educate the new generation at the same time that the old generations are still re-educating themselves to live in a post-Communist society where everything is different than they have had to deal with before.

So, while we are counting our blessings of the past ten years, we are still looking forward with optimism to the challenges of the next ten years.[160]

University Parish

Ussurisk Primorye

Father Myron lectures in Ussurisk about alcoholism and drug abuse often accompanied by Dr. Sergei Yakovlev, Doctor of Marine Science to speak about AA. A Neumann-like center is needed at the university.

Ussurisk Primorye, Parish in

The parish of the Nativity of Our Lord in Ussurisk was officially founded, and the first mass celebrated, on July 15, 2000. The parish was named in honor of Nativity of Our Lord Parish, St. Paul, MN, USA. For Christmas of 2000 the Parish of the Nativity of Our Lord in Ussurisk celebrated the first parish feast day on December 26 when Fr. Effing, the pastor, could come for Christmas Mass. The parish went all out to celebrate its feast day with Christmas decorations everywhere, a manger scene handmade by the kids, and a Jubilee Year Christmas Mass celebrated by candlelight. The parish currently has a 3-room apartment where Masses are held for the 15 parishioners.

On April 21, 2002 Fr. Christian Labanovsky, OSF was installed by Fr. Myron as pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Parish. Meanwhile the Sisters of St. Paul from Seoul, Korea, have purchased an apartment in Ussurisk and will be moving there on May.[162]

The four bells were provided by the �Siberian Society of Poland� and blessed for the church in Vladivostok by Pope John Paul II. They arrived in Vladivostok on October 12, 2000.

Fr. Edmund Cizak of Elk, Poland, is president of the Siberian Society. It exists in many countries of the world to which Poles fled after escaping from Siberia during the Communist times. As a service for the restoration of the Catholic Church in Russia they produce and send church bells; both to celebrate the new freedom of the Church and to help proclaim the Gospel in the land of their former residence. Fr. Cizak was in Novosibirsk on August 10, 1997 to bring bells for the new cathedral of Novosibirsk. Fr. Effing was in Novosibirsk for the dedication of the cathedral. Fr. Effing immediately asked for bells for Vladivostok. Soon after he received a message from Fr. Cizak asking what names we wanted on our four(!) bells. With Fr. Cizak�s help they were named in honor of St Mary, St Gabriel, St Joseph and St Raphael Kalinovsky. One must be Polish, replied Father Cizak.

The bells that celebrate the Jubilee Year of the Annunciation and Birth of Christ are a most beautiful shiny golden-colored metal. But that isn�t all�While Pope John Paul II was in Poland in June of 1999, he personally blessed the bells. Marek Wolosz and Przemyslave Maciazek are members of a group of Polish Boy Scouts that deal with difficult trips to various parts of the world. They drove the bells by truck from Poland, across Siberia, and put them on a train at Chita in TransBaikalia for their final journey to Vladivostok when driving was no longer an option.

The bells are now on display in the vestibule of the church � until the day when they can be elevated to their future home. The steeples of the cathedral were never completed before the building was confiscated in 1922, but we are hoping to be able to have them finished long before the centenary of the building in 2009.[164]

Building the Steeples, Repairing the Facade, Removing the Last Extra Story

These are projects for the future to finish the repairs of the cathedral. A project to repair the facade began on September 21. A team of ten Chinese stoneworkers who labored on the scaffolds every day undertook the work of repairing the cracks, fallen bricks and mortar. In general there are many Chinese workers in the city. They work from sunrise to sunset for several months, and then return to China to be with their families for a rest, especially during the cold winter months.[165]

Church Building

Most Holy Mother of God Parish was founded in the 1860s, and the current Church was built between 1909 and 1922. It was closed by the Communist government in 1930, remodeled, and used as the Communist State Archive between 1935 and 1993. The old school building is now an apartment building. In 1992, Fr. Effing began negotiations with the government over the return of the Church building. After two years of dealing with red tape with the help of Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage, other US bishops, and many Russian friends, the church was returned to Catholic hands October 1993.[166]

For ten years before the church was returned, a group of organ enthusiasts had been asking for the building. It was known to have the best acoustics in Vladivostok. In addition, there was a request before the Department of Culture in Moscow to renovate the building as an organ hall, as had been done in Irkustk and Krasnoyarsk.[167]

Once religious freedom was re-established in 1992, Archbishop Nicolai, the Russian Orthodox bishop responsible for the Primorye region, toured the city with a government official to locate and select all the buildings, which would be turned over to the Russian Orthodox Church. As they passed Most Holy Mother of God Roman Catholic Church, the official asked Archbishop Nicolai whether he wanted this building, too. The Archbishop responded, �No! That is the Roman Catholic Church, and the Catholics want it back some day.� The Vladivostok Catholic community, therefore, is grateful to the Orthodox archbishop for his generosity and support.[168]

The government had several objections to the Catholics receiving their building back. They wanted to see proof that the building really belonged to the Catholics� maybe the building had been built by Communists to begin with� maybe the rich Vatican should pay to restore the building if the local Catholics couldn�t afford to. Because the original architect�s drawing of the church no longer exists, Frs. Effing and Maurer commissioned an architect to design the appearance of the restored building and use of the surrounding land. Older parishioners made affidavits showing that the Church was originally built with private money. People scoured the archives in Harbin, Tomsk, St Petersburg, Moscow, Nicolaevsk, Sakhalin, and Blagoveschensk to find out exactly what land belonged to the church and what the original design of the Church had been. An agreement was reached with the Department of Culture that the parish would eventually install a pipe organ and hold organ concerts. They also agreed to restore it according to its historical period. The first Mass was held inside on October 3, 1993.[169]

The Church was officially reopened for Holy Mass on January 1, 1994, and had the first Mass with Bishop Werth on June 26, 1994. The solemn rededication will take place after the Church building is restored and completed (work on the steeples had not yet been finished at the time of the communist revolution).

The building�s extensive construction needs are listed on the website and in the August 1994 edition of our newsletter, the Vladivostok Sunrise (available on our website).

A more detailed timeline of return of the Church building in Vladivostok is contained in the January 1994 edition of the Vladivostok Sunrise (available on our website).

Physical Church buildings are much more important to the minds of the Russians than it is to the average American. The parish council, composed mostly of Russians, insists that the single greatest thing the priests can do to attract people to the Gospel is to obtain and renovate the Church building. The sound of the bells, the news reports about the progress and dedication of the church, the possibility of the people hearing organ music, and the general sign of good health that a fully functioning church will present will attract many people to Christ and His Church. It will also be a center to which people may come for information and classes, and will be a sign of the return of the Catholic Church to the region. There are only five Orthodox Church buildings currently operating in Vladivostok, all of them very small. There are also new Baptist, Methodist, and Evangelical churches; and the Lutheran church also has an historical building. In all, 28 Orthodox churches were destroyed in Vladivostok, while the single Catholic Church still remains. This is because our church building was begun in 1909 and was just completed in 1922 when the communists took the city. They didn�t want to destroy a new building, which could be used as a warehouse. The church is now listed as an historical monument, an official �Monument of Architecture,�[170] and must be renovated in the style of its original design, which means we need authentic decorations as they were done for Polish churches in 1922.

Summer of 1995 found volunteer parishioners working to repair the heating system. In the wintertime, leakage of air from the building keeps the church cold, despite the use of city heat. However, three furnaces, one a gift from Nativity Parish in St. Paul, MN, were being installed at a cost of about $11,000. Without the furnaces, the church would have to continue using city heat, would have to replace the 150 meters of hot water pipes under the street, and would have to repair the street at a total cost of $20,000. Now, with their own heating system, the church will buy its own fuel oil.[171] Nativity parish also donated a box of 3M-patio door shrink film to cover the windows, several of which were broken.[172] The church began using the heating system in the winter of 1995-1996, and the system worked great.

On October 18, 1994, Fr. Effing decided to proceed with the removal of one of the concrete and steel floors inside the building. Demolition work was funded by grant from the American Catholic Bishops� Office to Aid the Church in Eastern Europe. Rather than use jackhammers (too much vibration) or a concrete saw (too expensive to import), contractors built a platform on the floor below, and used a hydraulic cylinder to press on the ceiling above until it broke. It worked great, keeping vibration and motion to a minimum.[173] Repairs and floor removal continued. Enough work was completed to be able to celebrate Christmas 1995 Mass on the second floor of the building.

A photograph of the Church�s original interior was saved by one of the older parishioners, who thinks it was shot in 1921. The photograph shows her First Communion class with the parish priest and Bishop Karol Slivovsky. The photo also shows a marble crucifix above the altar. The crucifix was found to be in the possession of the Vladivostok Art Institute, which asked for two color computers to make the exchange. The photo also shows the communion rail, the shape of the sanctuary, details for the altar, and the absence of a major wall that is now in the church building. The Department of Architectural Monuments had insisted that the wall was part of the original building.[174]

On November 4, 1996, the large marble crucifix, which had stood as the central fixture over the main Altar before the Communists took the church, was returned. The crucifix is the only known object remaining from the original interior of the building. The sculptor is unknown, however, it is speculated that it may have been P.K. Klodt, who was known worldwide in the mid-19^th century. At first it was not officially the property of the parish, but remained under the administration of the Primorsky Museum of History and Culture for an initial period of three years. Four documents indicated the piece�s true ownership�the Communion picture, two documents about the building of a foundation for it, and a receipt of the transfer of the crucifix from the Archive to the Vladivostok Art Academy. The crucifix is marble, stands over 9 feet high, and weighs more than 2000 pounds. Several pieces of the crucifix are chipped or broken, including our Lord�s nose and the front part of the crown of thorns. For the return of the crucifix, the parish prepared a ceremony with a number of musical groups and presentations. Almost 400 people attended.[175]

On Christmas of 1995, Mass was celebrated in the Church after a heavy push to complete another stage of renovation and repairs. The Mass was preceded by a half hour of Christmas carols. It began with a procession carrying a statue of Mary. The children in the procession carried lit candles in glass jars, and placed the candles around the altar. The procession ended with the carrying of the Christ child to the cr�che.[176]

As of April 1996, the only one of Father�s six parishes with a church building was Most Holy Mother of God in Vladivostok. All other parishes had only a small apartment or nothing at all.[177]

City

Vladivostok is a cultural center, with two symphony orchestras, a standing theater company, and two musical colleges that grant advanced degrees.[178]

The city of almost one million is a seaport and administrative center of Primorsky Krai (Maritime Territory) in the Russian Far East. The town was founded in 1860 as a Russian military outpost and became a major port and naval base. During WWI, Vladivostok was the chief Pacific entry port for military supplies and railway equipment from the US. The city is also the eastern terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and the chief educational and cultural center of the Far East.

From the early 1930s until the Soviet Union collapsed on December 31, 1991, Vladivostok was a closed military city. Even Russians needed a special visa to visit or live there.[179]

US Companies in Vladivostok in 1994 were: ABB; ABB Inc.; Akos Joint-Stock Company; Alaska Airlines; American Business Center; American Globus corporation; American President Lines; AMI Ltd.; AT & T; California Trading & Industrial Corporation; Deloitte & Touche; DH; Fesco Intermodel; Giant/TPC Foods, Inc.; TPC Foods, Inc.; Hughes Technical Services Co.; IBM; Masterfoods; Mobil Oil; MRCI (Marine Resources Company International); Oceantrawl, Inc.; Pacific Law Center; Price Waterhouse; SFMT JV; The Register; Tri-Valley Growers; Vladivostok computer.[180] As of February 2001 there are no American companies in Vladivostok nor are any Americans ever seen on the streets.

Deanery

Fr. Myron Effing is the Dean of the Vladivostok Deanery.[181] The Deanery covers four states in Russia: Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsky Krai, Amursky Oblast, and The Jewish Autonomous region. The total area is the size of California, Oregon and Washington combined.

Diocese

The Vladivostok Diocese has remained on the list of official diocese in the Vatican�s Annuario Pontificio, although the Bishop�s seat is vacant. It is the only pre-revolution Russian diocese remaining on the Pontificio.

Parish

In 1922, when Vladivostok fell to the Communists, many Catholic parishioners were executed. Large groups of believers were resettled, so that elderly Catholics are now found almost anywhere. Before the revolution, the Roman Catholic population of Primorye State, whose capital is Vladivostok, was 15,000. Vladivostok was the diocesan seat, and the center of Catholicism in the Russian Far East. When Father Effing and Deacon Maurer came to Vladivostok, there were only two Catholics younger than 60, both of them with families and children, and a total of fewer than 10 baptized Catholics.[182]

The beginning of the Catholic community in the Primorsky region was in 1863, when Fr. Radzishevski was appointed as military chaplain in the Far East. At the time, the Catholic community consisted only of military people and the priest lived mostly in Nicolayevsk-na-Amure where he had his own home in which he offered Mass. In 1875, Vladivostok was made a fort; the priest came to live in the city, and to offer Mass in the apartment he shared with an unmarried Evangelical pastor. He died and was buried by Orthodox priests in their cemetery. Fr. Spganovich, also a military chaplain, succeeded him. In 1885 and 1866, two Poles gave the Catholic community some land on which to build a structure with bell tower and a priest�s apartment. In the meantime, the construction of the Ussurijsk railroad brought many Polish to Vladivostok. In 1900, the Church of the body of Christ burned. Two years later, Fr. Boulvich arrived, and a new, but small and poor, church was built. Fr. Lavrinovich, his successor decided to build a masonry church. He was eager, zealous, and a great polish patriot. The church building was completed in 1922, after he left for Tambow where Bolsheviks shot him because of his religious zeal. Poles continued to settle in Vladivostok. A Roman Catholic Relief society was established which opened the first Polish elementary school in 1907. In l917, the Poles founded an organization called �Polish House� which decided to run a candidate for City Council, engineer Cheslov Wolf. He won and the Council eventually gave enough money to build and take care of a Polish school (four grades) for 120 pupils. In 1920, Archbishop Rotsop established the Vladivostok Deanery that included a large area with 11,000 Catholics and five priests. The first dean was Fr. Karol Slivovsky who later became bishop in 1923.[183] The communist takeover of the area saw the suppression of religion and the closing of the Cathedral.

As communism fell, the Catholic parish of the Most Holy Mother of God re-formed itself from Catholics who knew other Catholics (or had acquaintances who knew Catholics, and so forth). Andrew Popov wrote to Bishop Werth and asked for a priest. About the same time, Fr. Effing was visiting the bishop, so the bishop asked him to visit Vladivostok and report back to him. Previous to these events, Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage had visited Vladivostok and was exploring how Americans might help Asian Russia. Also, the Pope announced the establishment of two Catholic dioceses in Russia � The Archdiocese of Moscow for Europe, and the Diocese of Novosibirsk for Asia. On November 15, 1991, Bishop Werth accepted the application of Father Effing and Deacon Maurer to be the first resident Roman Catholic clergy in Vladivostok in 50 years.[184]

The boundaries of the parish extend to the Primorye State borders, more than 66,000 square miles.[185]

The first help for the new parish in Vladivostok came from the American Catholics through the annual collection for the Church in Eastern Europe. The fund gave the Vladivostok parish $30,000 to pay for the initial expenses of receiving the building and securing it � as far as is known, the first church to be received back in Russia. Later, St Mary�s Parish in Little Falls, MN gave a large unrestricted donation of $15,000, which was partly used on the church building. Most Holy Mother of God Catholic Parish continues to rely on �Mary parishes� in the US for support, and a current listing of supportive parishes is given at our website.[186]

A recent development in our parish life has been the participation of the Korean Catholics who live in Vladivostok. The Sisters of St. Paul of Chartes from Seoul have come to live in Vladivostok for a year while they learn Russian. They have begun to interact with the local Korean community.[187]

On Christmas Eve of 2000, the (Midnight!) Christmas Mass was celebrated at 6:00 PM (it is dangerous to be out on the streets late at night). Choir began to sing at 5:30 and by 6:00 there was standing room only. There were about 350 in attendance including four Orthodox priests dressed in flowing black cassocks. There was also a fifth Orthodox priest dressed in lay clothes with his wife and son. The six new stained glass windows that were installed by the artists themselves wonderfully enhanced the beauty of the night.[188]

In a visit of the bishop the week before Christmas, along with five priests, four sisters and one brother from other parishes in our deanery we were told that we will soon have 38 priests in the diocese, up from 22 when he was made bishop two and a half years ago. Unfortunately for us here at the end of the earth, most of the new ones will be in Irkustk for a year or more as they study the Russian language and learn about Russian history and culture.[189]

Parish Library

A growing part of our work, the library, is temporarily housed in a dedicated space in the church. Catholic reading material is rare in Russia. The United Bible Societies has a store in Vladivostok where it is easy to get Biblical materials, but books about Catholic doctrine can only be found in our library. Even university students come to use the library which has books in Russian, English, Polish, and Lithuanian, as well as vidocassettes and audio materials. �Our Sunday Visitor� donated some of the materials. The librarian who keeps track of all the books and magazines is Yelena Andreevna. Her mother was a parishioner before the Russian revolution, and is among the children in the historic photograph of Bishop Slivosky.[190]

Parish Office and Rectory Project

Father McGuire's Mission Share of Kentucky and the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation of California helped us to buy land, and an anonymous donor has provided the architectural work and the funds for the foundation of the new mission building. The new building will house Fr. Effing, Fr. Maurer, Brother Oleg, and our seminarians. It will include all the parish offices and classrooms. It will be used for conferences, workshops, training programs, and parish events.[191] We finally started building the rectory again�after a lapse of nearly a year when we coud not get a building permit because of the new state administration. It was not religious discrimination-nobody could get a building permit.[192]

Organ Concerts/Festivals/Recitals

In 1996 the Catholic parish of the Most Holy Mother of God in the port city of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East received as a gift an electric organ suitable for organ concerts. It is a Rodgers Cambridge 220-II, which was built in 1974 by the Rodgers Instrument Company of Hillsboro, Oregon, for the Catholic parish of the Epiphany of the Lord in Coon Rapids, MN. This was an ironic turn of events for the Vladivostok parish. Never did the two American priests serving the parish dream that such a good instrument would become available to them, and completely free of charge! They had just received back from their former communist government their beautiful, neo-Gothic, pre-Revolutionary church building. The former church building was opened as the Primorsky State Archive in 1935. But in the early 1970s some communist bureaucrat got the idea that the building would make a very good civic organ hall, since by that time the only thing that communists knew about Catholics was that they usually had an organ in their parishes. Therefore, they reasoned, the building would have good acoustics as a civic organ hall. But the interior had been divided by three floors of steel reinforced concrete and steel I-beams.

There was another problem. The archival collection housed in the former church building had nowhere else to be stored. So the Vladivostok civic Organ Hall project was launched. The first stage took almost 20 years to complete: a new building for the archives was built by 1990. But then the money ran out, and they never go a chance to dismantle the additional interior floors in the church in order to make the space useable as an organ concert hall.

When the two American priests arrived in Vladivostok in 1992 they began the delicate process of negotiations with the government to receive the church and use it for sacred services. One of the objections raised in the negotiations was that there was a big project already in movement to turn it into an organ hall. So the priests promised that if the church building were returned to the Catholic parish, they would get an organ and have public organ concerts. They had no idea that their promise would be a reality in less than four years!

Since the donation of the �Epiphany� organ to the Vladivostok parish, it has not only been used for all Sunday and feast day sacred services, but has also served the purpose of organ concerts open to the public, yearly organ music festivals, and organ instructions for over 100 music students in the Vladivostok area. For the first four and one half years, this organ was the only concert-size organ n the entire Russian Far East, an area of land almost half the size of the continental United States of America. (Just recently a parish of the New Apostolic Church in the city of Khabarovsk has acquired a medium size electric organ. Khabarovsk is 800 miles away from Vladivostok.)

For the first two years of the existence of the Rodgers Cambridge 220-II organ in Vladivostok, organ concerts and festivals were offered to the public free of charge. The organ is located in the only Catholic Church building in the city. The church is located in the center of the city of almost 1 million people. The church seats 250 people. This may seem small by American standards, but this church happens to be the largest Catholic Church in all of Asian Russia, a land mass more than 2.5 times the size of the continental U.S.A. From the beginning of the free public organ concerts the church was always filled past capacity. For the last free concert, Christmas 1998, there were over four hundred people in attendance! At that point, the music director of the parish decided that for the sake of the safety of the public, the number of listeners would have to be limited, and so it was decided to begin to sell tickets.

From 1998 to 2001 the parish has carried out a plan of four public concerts a year (Fall, Christmas, Easter, Summer) for the ticket price of 40 rubles (the equivalent of about $6.00 U.S. at the time.) This price was slightly higher than the state sponsored concerts of the philharmonic orchestra and other classical music performances in the city. During the first year of ticket sales (1998) one performance of each concert was held, except there were two performances of the Christmas concert since almost 100 tickets were distributed free of charge as Christmas gifts. Tickets sold out in less than two days.

During the second year of ticket sales (1999), the number of performances of each concert was raised to two, and three for Christmas. The ticket price was raised from 40 rubles to 60 rubles, where it remains today. (With the deep deflation of the ruble, this is now the equivalent of only $2.15 U.S.A., but it is 66% higher than tickets for all other classical music concerts in the city.) Tickets continued to sell out many weeks before all concert dates.

During this past year of ticket sales (2000), the number of performances of each concert was raised to three, and four for Christmas. The ticket price was held constant. All concerts were sold out immediately, and hundreds of people were clamoring for more tickets for the recently completed four Christmas concerts. Therefore it has been decided to increase the number of all concerts to four and also to increase the ticket price as a way of limiting the overwhelming demand of the public to attend the organ concert series at our parish.

We have decided that we do not yet have the time and enough musical performers to plan more than these 12 concerts a year. Our first priority is a parish. We do not want to become entirely distracted from our main religious responsibilities. We began the organ concerts primarily because we wanted to share the only organ in this vast area with the non-Catholic residents of the city. Our organ concert program has found an amazingly responsive cord in the hearts of thousands of area residents. We have two basic principles around which the concerts are planned: 1. Our �concert hall� is special. We are a church that has a rare musical instrument, a powerful organ. 2. All music at our concerts must be sacred music or in some way related to the organ. These two principles have attracted an unforeseen immense number of concertgoers who do not have any other opportunity to hear this kind of music.

In addition to public concerts for which admission is now charged, the Vladivostok Catholic parish also hosts yearly organ and choral festivals at which the organ is the most prominently featured asset. These festivals, such as the annual ecumenical Christmas Festival of Christian Choirs, are open to all people free of charge. The parish also hosts many groups of students, teachers, and government officials, who always request to have an organ recital as part of their tour of the historic, pre-Communist revolution church building. In 2000 there were 22 such organ recitals for specific groups of guests.[193]

The 2000-2001 Organ Concert Series

The 2000-2001 Organ Concert Series in Vladivostok ended with two sold-out performances of a special Ave Maria concert in homage to the patroness of the parish, the Most Holy Mother God, during her special month of May. These annual Ave Maria concerts, begun just a year ago with only one performance, have in a very short time become a city tradition and the most highly praised concerts in the entire series. Originally the inspiration of our parish organist Marina Omelchenko for the Jubilee Year 2000, the concerts were so well received last year that she suggested that we should do something similar this year. The new and revised program, performed twice, drew rave reviews not only from the public but also from performing art critics of the local news media and from influential members of the Russian Far East classical music community. They were widely recognized as the most spiritual and inspirational musical program ever performed in Vladivostok. The Ave Maria concert program consisted of only three performing artists: Mrs. Omelchenko at the Epiphany Organ; operatic soprano Veronica Kasyanova of the Khabarovsk Philharmonic Society, who has sung at our concerts many times; and for the first time in our church, local mezzo-soprano Oksana Karnyevskaya, last year�s winner of the coveted Tchaikovsky Prize for opera singers in Moscow. The concerts began with a lively and complex organ solo by Mrs. Omelchenko of an arrangement by Franz Liszt of a medieval Ave Maria. The piece lasted just a little over three minutes, but during that brief period her helper Andre Mirgorodski changed the organ registration more than 25 times. The concert progressed through a variety of sacred instrumental compositions and songs, all related to the Blessed Mother. The songs included a Byzantine chant version of the Magnificat, sung by both vocalists; two very different solo renditions of the Salve Regina; and numerous Ave Maria�s by Mozart, Saints Saenz, Concini, Bach and Shubert. The would-be finale was a duet of the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. As it turned out, however, that was not the end of the concerts, because on both evenings the concert goers, with energetic and prolonged applause, insisted that the performers continue, and were rewarded on both occasions with a very moving duet of the traditional O Sanctisima sung in both Latin and Russian. Russian concerts, generally speaking, do not have printed programs. For the very warm-hearted Russians, print seems a method too cold and too impersonal to inform the audience about the beautiful music that they will be hearing. Instead, every concert has a live announcer who steps out onto the stage before each number to announce the next piece and occasionally to give some brief information about its composition or history that will help the people to appreciate it. Between the musical and vocal performances of the Ave Maria concerts, parish Director of Evangelization, Mr Yuri Belozyorov, acting as concert announcer, wove in a beautiful fabric of short texts from the Bible and the documents of Vatican II about the Blessed Mother�s role in the salvation of the world by her Son Jesus Christ. These short narrations helped the people in the audience not only to hear classic pieces of sacred music, but also to situate them in the context of God�s love for them. To help accomplish this goal, Yuri was coached for a number of hours on his delivery of the text by parishioner Ludmila Rakhmanova, who is a member of the faculty and former dean of the department of drama and opera at the Russian Far East Institute of Art. This year�s Ave Maria concerts ended the most successful concert season that the parish has hosted in its six-years of concerts since we received the Epiphany Organ as a gift from the parish of the Epiphany of the Lord in Coon Rapids, MN in 1995. The concert series was originally planned as a series of four one-performance-only concerts a year. Since then the demand has grown so much that the initial concert of the school year, usually in October, is performed three times; the Christmas and Easter Concerts four times each; and the final Ave Maria concert, which comes only a month after Easter, is performed twice. This makes a total of 13 regular concerts a year, which are always sold out before every concert date, for a total, yearly audience of 2,600 people. This does not include concerts, festivals and evenings of musical reflections organized for special occasions. Because of the increased demand we have been able to raise the price of the tickets to 100 rubles ($3.48). This is a very reasonable price. It is somewhat higher than for concerts of classical music performed by the government subsidized musical establishment, but it is much lower than for concerts of nationally famous pop and rock music acts. The proceeds from ticket sales go toward the restoration of our historic church building.[194]

Street Children Project

Rachael Hughes from New Zealand was the first person who began to work with street children in Vladivostok. The problem was too big for her to handle all by herself, because there were too many children. Two years ago she asked all the churches in Vladivostok if they could extend a hand to help. Initially various Protestant and our Catholic church each took a day of the week to feed the children, which, at the beginning, was about 20 children per day. It means that volunteers travel to the food collection point to buy the food, and then go to the five places in the city where the children collect to serve them. Since that time, one Protestant church left the program because they could not provide the funding. Our parish has taken their night, so that we now have two nights of the week, and our volunteers have increased from one person to six. The number of children varies from 20 children per night in the coldest days of the winter to 110 children per night in the summertime, when there are many children who have run away from their homes in other parts of the state and take the railroads to the "Golden Gate of the East"--Vladivostok. At the present time, the foods we give to the children are usually: soup or borscht, porridge, hot tea (winter) or cold fruit juice (summer), prepared fish or sausages, sweet rolls. Only we Catholics add the sweet rolls to the menu, so the kids call the Catholics "The Sweet-Roll People." It is also interesting to note that the children refer to the volunteers as "mamas." Why there are street children, future prospects dealing with the homeless, and some stories abut street children can be found in issue #46 of Vladivostok Sunrise which can be found on the website.[195]

Voitsel, Cyril

The latest member of our mission staff in Russia is Cyril Voitsel, a native of Novosibirsk whohas moved withhis family to Vladivostok. Cyril is a lay theologian, having gotten his degree at the University of Krakow in Poland. His responsibilities now include coordinating and teaching in our deanery�s part of the diocesan program to prepare catechists. He also is working in our adult education program, helping prepare people for baptism and Confirmation, and teaching a weekly Bible class. He is also coordinating the men�s conference which will be led by Steve Wood of the covenant Keepers of St. Joseph. As if that isn�t enough, he is also teaching two theology courses at the Vladivostok government University of Economics and Service.[196]

Windows Project for the Cathedral in Vladivostok

By July 1 we succeeded in replacing all of the old large window frames in the main body of the church with new ones, even though the stained glass will be coming in only gradually from Belorus as it is produced.[197] We unveiled and Bishop Mazur blessed the Jubilee window, the first of our stained glass windows. It is the image of the Annunciation. The outer frames and glass were donated by the German Catholic organization Renovabis, and the stained glass and inner frame were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Terrence Kopp and family of Minnesota.[198] The new stained glass window of the Church in Vladivostok is stunning in its beauty and in its seemingly otherworldly striking colors. The Virgin Mary sits with her head bent toward the Holy Scriptures. She is ready to accept the Word into herself. Her whole image is light, as if a tiny little breeze would be enough to lift her like a tuft of cotton fluff. This lightness images her spiritual humility. It is as if she is again saying the words in the Gospel, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." In front of Virgin stands Archangel Gabriel, announcing her unusual vocation. In his hands he holds white lilies, symbols of purity and innocence. Above these figures the viewer sees two other angels who watch with gratitude the scene of the Annunciation unfolding. Between them the Holy Spirit is represented in the form of a dove with a bright halo. His rays reach and consecrate the one who is to become the mother of the savior and the mother of the whole reborn human race. The whole composition breathes lightly and cleanly, just as it must to be a work of art to represent the important moment in human history in which God mercifully decided to become incarnate in our fallen world. The Virgin miraculously becoming the Mother of God is the embodiment of purity and holiness for Christians, an example of humility before the highest decision of the Creator. It is exactly that feeling which the artists managed to catch when they created this beautiful window with their own hands. The artists Alexei Ivanovsky and Vladimir Ivanov came to our Russian Far East from Belorus where the window was made, although

the final assembly took place in Vladivostok. They said that they never saw the whole window in one piece before the assembly in Vladivostok, it being too large for their shop. They had to photograph the separate parts and paste the pictures together to get some idea of the whole. So the window was put together from small fragments of glass into larger sections and then sent across the border to Russia. That wasn't simple either because the import-export laws between Russia and Belorus are always changing, and because the border crossing took place during the difficult time of the Chechan Conflict so that the customs agents had to minutely examine every item. With God's help the window arrived at the Eastern border of Russia and the final process of mounting the window began. Maybe the mounting went very quickly, but the whole process leading to that stage has a four-year history. Alexei came to Vladivostok for the first time five years ago, and a year later his firm was invited to participate in the renovation of the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God. It was then that idea to do the windows occurred, but it was necessary first to do some work on the building itself so that it would be fit for divine worship, and only then one could do the windows. But what should they be like? Where to find appropriately similar ones? The Church itself is neogothic, and the nearest examples of such churches were in Poland. So that would be the best place to look for examples, and that is what was done. "We studied various Polish churches," recalls Alexei, "but we also had to draw inspiration not just from churches, but also we felt the influence of the style of painting of Bottichelli of the 16th century. The basic source of inspiration was the Biblical text of the Annunciation itself. "The first version of the window which we showed Fr. Myron had Mary standing, but that wouldn't square with the second proposed window, which will be placed opposite the Annunciation in which Mary would appear under the title Mary Mother of the Church, and would be surrounded by the apostles. Since the number of human figures would be greater, but each of smaller size than on the Annunciation window, there might be disharmony between the windows so we decided to picture Mary sitting, because it would reduce the size of her image. After the first version we made a second, and then finally the third version was finally approved for the window." So we see that the planning period also had its interesting moments, as did the actual window construction. "We decided to use the Tiffany method of mounting the glass," says Alexei, "because that technology gives us the possibility to play with the distances between mosaic pieces of glass, and because it is different from other methods in that the glass is soldered into place along its whole length, which adds to the strength of the window. "We ordered the glass itself in Poland," Vladimir comments. "It is a rare type of glass-Opal." It isn't produced in Belorus nor in Russia-not even in Europe! They make this glass only in the United States, and it comes from there to Europe and Poland." The problem is that it is not always possible to obtain the necessary quantities of the rare glass, so of course the artist cannot use that glass for the whole stained glass window, but combining it with other glasses produces the beauty which parishioners can admire after the 25th of March, the date of the uncovering of the window on the Feast of the Annunciation. Thanks be to God that such a great feastday will be commemorated with the unveiling of such a wonderful piece of art the beauty of which will accompany the prayers of parishioners into the next millennium.[199]

A special Jubilee Christmas present for us was the arrival and installation of six new stained glass windows the week before Christmas. The largest window is "Mary Mother of the Church" which was donated by the Seraphic Mass Association of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The new window is in the transept of the Most Holy Mother of God Church in Vladivostok, opposite the Annunciation Window. One could say that at the Annunciation Mary already became the "Mother of the Church" by becoming the mother of Jesus, but the Church celebrates its birthday on Pentecost, so the new window shows Mary surrounded by the Apostles on Pentecost Day. The streams of fire from the Holy Spirit flow, not only to the Apostles and Mary, but through and past them to the Christians of all times who are represented in the window by a bishop and his people celebrating the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist, so that the three sacraments of initiation are shown in close conjunction. The other five windows are "Mary Mother of God", the rose window over the main entrance donated by my family three years ago to memorialize my 25th anniversary of ordination, "Pieta" donated by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Flynn of Snohomish WA, "St Joseph" by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ozburn of Janesville WI, "Tree of Jesse" by Ms. Virginia Murphy of Nativity Parish in St. Paul, MN and "Seven Sorrows" donated by Mrs. Juliet Shepard of Rhode Island.[200] Three more stained glass windows have arrived from Brest and have been installed in the church. The windows are "The Visitation", "The Nativity", and "The Presentation".[201]

On March 21, 2002 Bishop Jerzy Mazur celebrated the Chrism Mass in Vladivostok with most of the priests of the Russian Far East and also blessed some of the new stained glass windows.[202] See picture of �The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary��another of the new windows in the Cathedral in Vladivostok in the November 2002 issue of Vladivostok Sunrise. On September 21 in the early morning the crate arrived at our church from Brest, Belorus with the next installment of our stained glass windows, The Finding in the Temple, The Assumption, and The Coronation. On page one is a photo of "The Coronation," in my opinion the prettiest. It is the only window in which the event pictured doesn't take place on earth, but in heaven, and so its style is very different from the other windows. Do you like it? Only a few more windows to go and the whole set will be complete.[203]

Wood Factory of FOMIP

FOMIP is a charitable organization modeled on the St. Vincent de Paul Society. Our �St. Vincent de Paul Stores� are incomporated as nonprofits under the Russian name of �FOMIP��Foundation for the Poorest.

Today FOMIP is sending the first container of their production of glued wood paneling to South Korea. Naturally we hope it is the first of many, many.[204]

The wood factory has produced a sample pew for Lesozovodsk using the design of a usual Russian kitchen bench with kneelers added.[205]

Women�s Support Centers

The main purpose of the Centers is moral and material support for pregnant women who might otherwise consider abortion. The Centers also help families with many children, and participate in the �Adopt-a-Birth� program in which we help supply needed medicines and supplies for poor women who are to give birth.[206]

1. First located in Vladivostok in Birthing Hospital 5, which deals only in birthing and prenatal care.

Work Teams

Work teams will go to Vladivostok to help out with the activities of the mission for 10 days each month. Please see our web site at http://www.vladmission.org or e-mail Dan Pyne for an information packet at: hekynav@earthlink.net.

Contact Information

Note: Please do not send any donations of any kind directly to Russia. For donation information, see below.

Your donations are tax-deductible. You will receive any required receipt for IRS tax purposes by return mail.

Donations in kind: If you have items that you think we can use, please contact Mrs. Sandra Sonnen at the Mission Office in St. Paul giving a complete list of items. If we accept your offer, you will need official inventory information from her, too, for Russian Customs.

[1] See Dioceses in Russia.

[2] See also Bishop Joseph Werth.

[3] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[4] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1993.

[5] Our Sunday Visitor, June 1994.

[6] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[7] See also Bishop Jerzy Mazur.

[8] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002

[9] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002

[10] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[11] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 1996.

[12] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002.

[13] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002

[14] Our Sunday Visitor, June 26, 1994.

[15] ibid.

[16] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[17] Vladivostok Sunrise, August 1994.

[18]Vladivostok Sunrise, August 1994

[19] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[20] Fr. Dan E-mail, March 28, 2001

[21] See website of vladmission.org.

[22] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1993.

[23] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1993.

[24] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[25] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[26] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1996.

[27] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[28] Fr. Dan E-mail.

[29] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002.

[30] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002.

[31] Mission Flyer, August 1993.

[32] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[33] Vladivostok News, November 15, 1996.

[34] Mission Flyer, August 1993.

[35] Interview, November 1993.

[36] Zenit News Agency, February 11, 2002

[37] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2002.

[38] Fr. Effing letter to donors, April 2002.

[39] Vladivostok Sunrise, October, 1995.

[40] Vladivostok News, November 15, 1996.

[41] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2001.

[42] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1991.

[43] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1993.

[44] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[45] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2000.

[46] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[47] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[48] Exerpts from John Sonnen E-mail, July 23, 2002.

[49] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2002.

[50] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[51] Fr. Effing E-mail, April 9, 2002.

[52] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[53] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 2002.

[54] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[55] Our Sunday Visitor, June 1994.

[56] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001.

[57] Interview, November 1993.

[58] Vladivostok News, July 11, 1996.

[59] All statistics from the CDC Report: Vital and Health Statistics, June 1995.

[60] Vladivostok Sunrise, No. 2.

[61] Soul.

[62] Mission Flyer, August 1993.

[63] Vladivostok Sunrise, No. 2.

[64] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1991.

[65] Our Sunday Visitor, June 26, 1994.

[66] Letter, January 20, 1996.

[67] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 1996.

[68] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[69] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[70] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001.

[71] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[72] Letter, April 2, 1996; Vladivostok Sunrise, May 1996.

[73] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[74] Mission Flyer, August 1993; Interview, November, 1993.

[75] Fr. Dan E-mail, March 28, 2001.

[76] Fr. Dan E-mail, March 28, 2001.

[77] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1993.

[78] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[79] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[80] As of January 17, 2001.

[81] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2001.

[82] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[83] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[84] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[85] There is a picture on our website of the rock quarry where the mass grave was found.

[86] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1993.

[87] See Father Gregory Yurkevich.

[88] Mission Flyer, August 1993.

[89] Vladivostok Sunrise, January, 1993.

[90] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1, 1996.

[91] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[92] Fr. Dan E-mail, December 17, 2001.

[93] See website.

[94] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2002.

[95] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996, Interview, November 1993.

[96] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[97] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[98] See Also: Women�s Centers

[99] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[100] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1995.

[101] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1995.

[102] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[103] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001.

[104] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1995

[105] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[106] Mission Flyer, August 1993.

[107] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer, 1996.

[108]Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001. Also see, Ordination of the First Native Russian, this document.

[109] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[110] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2002.

[111] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 2002.

[112] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[113] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1993.

[114] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001.

[115] Ibid.

[116] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[117] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[118] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 1995.

[119] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[120] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[121] Vladivostok Sunrise, Issue #4.

[122] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[123] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[124] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[125] E-mail from Fr. Effing, December 28, 2000.

[126] Interview, November 1993.

[127] See also Denominations.

[128] Vladivostok News, November 29, 1996.

[129] Fr. Effing Letter to Donors, June 2002.

[130] Article from FIDES, Vatican Missionary Agency on the February 2001 Ad Lumina visit by the Russian Bishops to the Holy Father

[131] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[132] December 28, 2000.

[133] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2001.

[134] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2001.

[135] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2002.

[136] See also Bishop Karol Slivovsky.

[137] See also Father Gregory Yurkevich.

[138] Available at our website.

[139] Vladivostok Sunrise, August 1994.

[140] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[141] Vladivostok Sunrise July 2000.

[142] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2001.

[143] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 2001.

[144] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[145] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002.

[146] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002.

[147] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2002.

[148] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 1995.

[149] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2001.

[150] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 1995.

[151] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[152] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[153] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1996.

[154] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2000.

[155] Vladiovstok Sunrise, March 2002.

[156] Ibid.

[157] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2002.

[158] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002.

[159] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[160] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2002.

[161] Fr. Effing Letter to Donors, June 2002.

[162] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002.

[163] There is a lengthy description of the church in Photocopy, �The Catholic Church in Vershina�.

[164] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[165] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[166] Our Sunday Visitor, June 26, 1994.

[167] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[168] Vladivostok Sunrise, Issue #3.

[169] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1994.

[170] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[171] Vladivostok Sunrise, October 1995.

[172] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[173] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[174] Vladivostok Sunrise, June 1995.

[175] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1996.

[176] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1996.

[177] Letter, April 2, 1996.

[178] Vladivostok Sunrise, January 1993.

[179] Jeff Lang�s Home Page, summer 1996.

[180] Letter from Thunderbird, May 7, 1997.

[181] As a Dean, Fr. Effing is properly addressed in writing as �Very Reverend Myron Effing.�

[182] E-mail from Father Effing, August 4, 1994.

[183] Vladivostok Sunrise, Issue #3.

[184] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1991.

[185] Vladivostok Sunrise, December 1994.

[186] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 1999.

[187] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2000.

[188] E-mail from Father Effing, December 28, 2000.

[189] E-mail from Father Effing, December 28, 2000.

[190] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002.

[191] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2001.

[192] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[193] E-mail from Father Effing, January 17, 2001.

[194] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[195] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2002.

[196] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[197] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2000.

[198] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2000.

[199] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2000.

[200] Vladivostok Sunrise, March 2001.

[201] Vladivostok Sunrise, September 2001.

[202] Vladivostok Sunrise, May 2002.

[203] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[204] E-mail from Fr. Effing, April 9, 2002.

[205] Vladivostok Sunrise, November 2002.

[206] Vladivostok Sunrise, July 2000.