Russian authorities ordered Father Fernando Vera, a Mexican Opus Dei priest who ministers at a Moscow parish, to leave Russia within 24 hours.
Newsroom (20/-4/2022 12:30 PM Gaudium Press) As the parishioners themselves announced on social media channels, on Holy Saturday, “the Russian authorities gave Catholics an Easter gift, ordering the expulsion within 24 hours of the priest of the Moscow parish of Saints Peter and Paul, Father Fernando Vera, without even allowing him to celebrate the Vigil and Easter Day liturgies”.
The Mexican Opus Dei parish priest, who has been serving in Russia for seven years, had his residence permit withdrawn without any explanation, giving him only one day to return to his country. He will probably not be allowed to return to his mission in Russia.
As the faithful commented, “Fr. Vera is in the habit of calling things by their name, but today this is not considered a civic virtue in our country. Even with all the necessary prudence, it is difficult today to avoid committing the offence of “defaming the authorities and the army,” even if one only mentions the “war” going on in Ukraine. While this can cost Russian citizens heavy fines or even arrest and imprisonment, for a foreign missionary, it means the loss of the right to remain in his post, without even the 48 hours notice given to diplomats to be expelled.
The expulsion of missionaries is nothing new in Russia, and already in the early years of the Putin regime, there had been several cases indicating the Russians’ desire to ward off “foreign influences.” For years, Russian Catholics have been keeping a low profile, avoiding initiatives that could be accused of proselytism and professing absolute loyalty to the authorities and their instructions, but this is clearly not enough.
There are still many missionaries coming from various countries around the world, partly because local priests are still not enough to cover the approximately 300 Catholic parishes in Russia. Of the four bishops working in Russia, three are foreign citizens, and one is a German with Russian citizenship. A bishop was already removed in 2002 when Bishop Erzy Mazur of Irkutsk in Siberia was forced to return to his native Poland.
Fr Vera’s departure is very painful for Moscow Catholics: he had only a few months before replaced Fr Igor Kovalevsky as the pastor of the historic Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Together with the French Church of St Louis of the French and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, it is part of the entire architectural and cultic heritage of the Roman Catholic Church in the Russian capital.
Fr Igor had left office in a dispute with Archbishop Paolo Pezzi and the Curia over the poor management of the restitution of parish buildings. He had been one of the first collaborators since the 1990s, and his successor was trying to rebuild harmony between the faithful and the pastors.
Only a week before Fr. Vera’s expulsion, Arch. Pezzi had signed a decree of “canonical punishment of the priest Igor Kovalevsky for failure to fulfill his duties” with a series of accusations that further exacerbated the Catholic community’s unease. Fr Igor spontaneously left Russia months ago, even interrupting his priestly service, and has now been canonically suspended by the bishop for disobedience and for ‘leading the faithful into temptation.’
Archbishop Pezzi himself presided over the Holy Week and Easter services, invoking “the Holy Cross, our only hope.” He said that the world is on fire, but under its flames rises the Cross, and nothing can destroy it: “It is our way from earth to heaven.” Catholics “listen to the cries of pain of those who die, and we would like to help them, to be guardian angels and consolers, but we can only act together with Christ Crucified,” the bishop concluded. “Not only here or there, but on all fronts, wherever there is suffering, embracing the Cross.”
(Via Aisanews.it)
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh
