The harassment of the Catholic Church in Russia, after the collapse of the USSR, began with Vladimir Putin's coming to power. Until then, the Church developed very dynamically. This is what triggered violent opposition, persecution and mass eviction of the Catholic clergy from the Russian Federation in the authorities of Russia and the Moscow Orthodox Church. That's the way it is today.
The attitude of the Russian authorities towards the Catholic Church (whether they were the Tsarian, russian or present authorities) is always characterized by distrust or even hostility. – In my opinion, this is due to ugly jealousy. The authorities of Russia and the Church, which identify with them, cannot bear the fact that Catholic spirituality is very attractive to people and powerfully attracts them to the Church – says Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski.
– Fr Tadeusz Kondrusewicz erstwhile asked Cyril, the ruler of the Moscow Church, “Why do you make life so hard for the Catholic Church, and with Protestant churches you do not act so harshly?” Patriarch Cyril answered honestly: “The church is most profoundly ores and sows so that Catholicism can no longer be eradicated, and the Protestants will plow shallowly and what they sow is drying up, due to the fact that it is not accepted in Russia.” says Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski, who served in Russia for 10 years.
Russia's mistakes and their stinks have gone into the world
Our Lady, in June 1929, at the private revelation of Lucia, 1 of the visionaries of Fatima, extending the Second Mystery of Fatima, warned humanity: “If Russia converts, peace will come. If not, it spreads its errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecution of the Holy Church.”
Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski, who was a missionary in many countries of the world, claims that these mistakes have long been felt. – Sometimes the unwashed body stinks, but the unwashed body (unspeakable and sometimes even unspeakable) the soul besides stinks and how.I think that over Poland, over Lithuania and many another neighbouring russian countries there is inactive a stench. The most sense of this stench in Ukraine now, where there is simply a war that Russia has caused, and now this war escalates and wants to decision it to another countries of the planet – says Fr Jarek Wiśniewski.
– St. Paul says that where many sins there are inactive abundantly God sends graces. This balances evil, which is not by sword and not by evil, but by the goodness of average people God washes distant – he removes all day. The Good God sent St. Faustina and Blessed Michael and hundreds of another unknown or lesser-known saints to the post-Soviet lands, making these lands odor a small better today. – says the Catholic priest and missionary.
Unlike the stinking odor of sin, holiness smells beautiful. This is evidenced by many who prayed at the graves of the saints. A wonderful odor can be enjoyed with relics, including St. Pio's Father, St. Charbel. The people to whom Our woman appeared are mentioned about the wonderful smells. They mention, among others, the scents of a flower Lips, jasmine, lilac, daisies or roses. – Similarly, those who visit the tomb of Blessed Fr Sopoćko in Białystok, his and St Faustyna relics in Vilnius, feel a beautiful odor of holiness. erstwhile I was there, I felt it myself. – says the Priest.
Soviet poison
A very visible example of poison that came from the USSR, and if not for God's Providence, could kill up to 500,000 people, we had in Białystok, the city where I live. During this impending cataclysm in Białystok, in the Seminary, Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski prepared for priestly service.
This was only 3 years after the terrible catastrophe of the russian atomic power plant close Chernobyl (April 1986). In April 1989, close to the centre of Białystok, as many as 8 russian tanks with lethally concentrated chlorine derailed.
– I remember this disaster well. A large arsenal of war was exported from east Germany at the time to Belarus, and later to Russia. There was besides a 2 million Red Army leaving. Over the years unrepaired tracks have suffered a lot. No wonder that on 1 April day of 1989, 8 immense chemical weapons tanks derailed close the centre of Białystok. Radio alerted residents not to leave their homes. We were to sit until the alarm was called off, in the attics or on the highest floors of advanced buildings. I was a clergyman of the Białystok Seminary at the time. It was kind of fun for me. The lectures were canceled. We sat in the tv area in the attic for a long time. We did not know the details of the disaster and we did not know how dangerous all the inhabitants of the city and its surroundings were (out. – there were 284 1000 people surviving in Białystok at the time). It was only later that it turned out that if the tankers had burst or became leaky, the effects could have been worse than in Nagasaki. I, too, would be among those people, poisoned by the odor of Russia – recalls Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski.
To this day, there is simply a belief among the inhabitants of Białystok that the chlorine from the tanks did not poison us, due to the fact that the spirit of holiness which hovered around these unfortunate tracks, thanks to Blessed Michael Sopoćko, balanced this evil which the Red Army prepared for us and brought in the tanks. Interestingly, in the place of derailment of the cisterns, Fr Sopoćko was sitting and speaking in 1975.
Church in Russia
When Fr Jarosław served in Russia, from 1991 to 2001, there he met the Franciscan father Grzegorz Cioroch (1962 – 2004). He was an extraordinary man who for Christ and the Church was ready to do anything. Therefore, the Russian authorities did not like him very much. They accused Father Gregory and another Catholic missionaries of dragging them to the Russian Church, and yet, as they argued, in Russia from the beginning there is Orthodoxy and Catholics are “mistakes”.
– In Russia, we're called occupiers, spies, weightbunds, people from nowhere. What my father discovered Gregory denied the slanderous words that we had never been to Russia before today. It turns out that in the area of Rostov nad Don, where I served in the parishes there for a long time, we were earlier than Orthodox – says Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski. This discovery of Father Gregory, referred to above, is medieval papers found by him in the Franciscan Fathers Archives in Padua. They describe the Franciscan missions carried out in the Golden Order (the territories of Russia were then under the regulation of the Moguls) as early as the 13th century. During these missions, among others, Franciscans in the city of Azov founded a parish and erected the church of St. Mark.
– It turned out that Catholics were in Russia, that is, in the vicinity of Azov, earlier than Orthodox, and so we have the right to be there still. I cared so much about it that thanks to the employees of the Archaeological Museum in Azów I found this place, where St. Mark's Church stood in the mediate Ages. Thanks to the donors, I managed to buy this lot and re-record St. Mark's tiny parish. It inactive exists present – says Fr Wiśniewski, who served 7 years in the Rostov region over Don and Azowa.
Putin banished Catholic priests from Russia
When the Vatican raised the rank of church structures in Russia in 2000 from the 4 apostolic administrations to the rank of 4 dioceses, the Russian authorities (who already ruled Putin) reacted violently. Lists of bishops and priests have been made, who are no longer allowed to stay in Russia. This was done in specified a way that priests who went on vacation to their country of origin were not allowed to return to Russia. The priests who wanted to return to Russia after their leave were no longer allowed in Russia in 2001. The bishop of Irkutsk – Jerzy Mazur, who is now the bishop of the Ełtsk diocese, was so lost. Fr Jarosław was the next “to be released”. – I went home on vacation. After my leave in accordance with the decision of Bishop Jerzy Mazur, I was to stay in Russia as parish priest of the fresh parish. But I was no longer allowed into Russia on the border. Later I was a missionary in Sakhalin, a small in Japan, in another countries of the world, and now I am on missions in Papua fresh Guinea – says Fr Jarosław Wiśniewski, who, although he has not utilized for years in Russia, inactive carries his parishioners in his heart.
Adam Białous
