Michael McGuinness, SVD, looks at the Divine Word Missionaries’ presence in Siberia, where we help HIV/AIDS victims, the intellectually disabled and the poor. But it should not be seen, he believes, as an attempt to proselytize the Orthodox faithful.
When you hear the word “Siberia”, perhaps one of the first images to come to mind is that of freezing temperatures or cruel prison camps – the infamous gulags. Siberia as a name comes from the Mongolian word for “sleeping land”. It is a vast area covering 10 million square km, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the West to the Pacific Ocean. The Trans-Siberian railway runs from Moscow to Vladivostock on the borders with North Korea, a distance of 6431 km over a six-day train journey.
Why are we, Divine Word Missionaries, present in Siberia? Our beginnings were accidental as well as providential. One of our missionaries, Fr John Bukovsky, who was born in Slovakia, was appointed Papal Nuncio to Romania in 1990 and shortly afterwards to Russia. Naturally, as a Divine Word Missionary, he requested that we should have a presence in this huge and exciting country, as it was just after the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The first SVD missionaries went to Moscow and St Petersburg. The Bishop of Irkutsk invited us as missionaries to work there. The invitation was accepted and that was the beginning of this new challenge. The challenge was accepted because we are missionaries. Some people objected saying Russia is the territory of the Russian Orthodox Church and our presence might give the impression that we wanted to convert them to the Roman Catholic Rite. Others argued that the Catholic minority, faith-seekers and those without any faith identity, as well as the poor and marginalized, had a right to our missionary presence. Once the invitation was accepted, there was no return.
Irkutsk is close to the lake Baikal. A local poet, Schelgunov writes: “As England created London and France created Paris, Siberia created Irkutsk. Siberia is proud of Irkutsk, and not to see this city means not to see Siberia.” The city – situated on three rivers: Angara, Ushakovka and Irkut – takes its name from the Irkut.
The climate can be severe. Yet, the number of sunny hours exceeds 2,000 and the summer can be pleasant. With a population of over 600,000, it is both an historical city and a modern educational centre. It is one of Russia’s large industrial, scientific, educational and cultural centres. A song expresses the feelings of its people: “There are taller and more beautiful cities… Irkutsk sees and hears you wherever you are, Dear Irkutsk you are the middle of the Earth.”
The pertinent question is: what are we doing there in the midst of an Orthodox tradition? Only 30 per cent of those who say they are Orthodox are in fact baptized and only two per cent celebrate Easter, which is the feast of all feasts for them. So, when it comes to the normal practice of faith, we are down to a small group of faithful. Siberia is also proud of its traditional religion in the form of Shamanism.
The local bishop believes the Catholic Church “needs people with a gift for communicating with others and the courage to share and speak about their faith”. I had the feeling that something more important was taking place, otherwise, the people would not express their friendship and closeness so easily. When I asked our three SVD missionaries what they do, they first emphasized that it is vital to learn the Russian language really well in order to be able to understand the people and to be understood by them. Without the language of the people, a missionary is lost.
For our Polish confrères, the language is very close to their own and it therefore takes less of an effort to learn it well. But our missionaries from India, Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere have to study much harder and mix with the people as much as possible. What a joy to see young missionaries say after two or three years, “Now the language is no problem, I really feel at home.” The city has an impressive new Catholic cathedral built by Bishop Mazur, SVD, who was refused re-entry to Russia in April 2002. The authorities never gave a reason for such a drastic decision. At present he is bishop of the Diocese of Elk in Poland.
Our work is linked to four activities: support for HIV/AIDS victims, work with the mentally handicapped, contact with the thousands of university students and providing a welcome home for poor children. This is not only the work of the Divine Word Missionaries. Our sister congregation, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS) and the Sisters of St Charles Borromeo are also very active, leaving more time for our men to visit some small communities in the region and to respond to the need for the prayerful reading of the Bible. Distances are a nightmare in the biggest geographical diocese in the world. The next SVD community is more than 30 hours away by train, in the city of Blagoveschensk, on the banks of the Amur river.
This southern region with its rich land stretches along a 1,243 km border with Northern China. Blagoveschensk has a population of over 350,000. The modern Chinese city of Hei-Hei lies just one km on the other side of the river. Chinese influence on what was a very isolated place is very evident. International trade has led to the development of both cities. An interesting shuttle trade by ferry or across a winter ice bridge on the river fills the city’s markets with cheap Chinese goods. Being so far south the climate is good, although mountains seem to dominate more than half the area. The climate is also a challenge. It can range from 40 Celsius in summer to –58 Celsius in winter.
Our three missionaries live in an apartment which looks out towards east China. Blagoveschensk’s Catholics form two small communities. The parish church of the Transfiguration was confiscated in 1935. Catholics helped the local Orthodox faithful to build their own cathedral on the condition that they would return the parish church which was once confiscated. When the building was finished, the Patriarch of Moscow did not permit the promise to be fulfilled. There are mixed feelings among the Catholic community on the issue.
The official position is to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, they meet in a wooden chapel and in a disused nuclear shelter. One of our missionaries said that such a simple structure is fine for the present and costs less to run. The area called Svobodni (liberty) is where the most cruel prisons of the former Communist regime were situated and there is a small Catholic community here.
The missionaries have a centre for disabled children and a holiday camp for poor children. The celebrations are full of joy, singing, candles and a lot of incense. Our missionaries lead a disciplined way of life: time for prayer, time to be together and time to be with the people. To be hospitable is vital in such a situation, as well as reaching out to those who want to share their life and dreams.
As missionaries, no land is strange to us. Part of our task in Siberia is to respect the Russian Orthodox Church. Not just because they have 23,000 parishes. There have been difficulties throughout history, but the Orthodox relationship with the Catholic Church reached a crisis point when John Paul II created four Catholic dioceses in Russia in 2002. The gesture was interpreted as an attempt to proselytize the Orthodox faithful. But it is not only the presence of the Catholic Church, and its desire to continue an open and sincere dialogue with the Orthodox, which is an issue.
Many Russians feel that other Christian denominations are trying to grow on Russian soil. Even if there are difficulties that have lasted for almost a thousand years, the time has come to intensify the contact and collaboration between the two Christian rites as a sign of unity and hope for the world. We Christians cannot remain separated. Gradually, and unexpectedly young Russians are joining the SVD to become missionaries themselves, a sign of the presence and power of the Spirit in our missionary life and work.
Would you like to know more about life as a Divine Word Missionary (SVD)? Write to the Vocations Director, 133 North Circular Road, Dublin 7.
This article first appeared in The Word (November 2006), a Divine Word Missionary Publication.
