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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 118 (2012): Our Past

Articles

Manifest and hidden hierarchy and administration of the Catholic Church in the USSR 1917-1991

  • Roman Dzwonkowski
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2012.118.38-64  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2012-12-30

Abstract

The aim of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia was to build a communist system. Lenin and his continuators adopted an assumption that the condition for realizing this aim was an atheistic society. In consequence they undertook a battle with religion and the Catholic Church in particular, with the aim of its complete elimination. The number of worshippers in the USSR was estimated at 1.5 million. Already in 1924 the hierarchy as personified by bishops ceased to exist. In 1926 Pope Pius XI made a hidden attempt at its restoration. In 1926 his secret emissary, bishop Michel d’Herbigny, during his two journeys to the USSR divided the Mohylev Archdiocese into ten apostle administrations and nominated ten latent apostle administrators with four bishops among them. This attempt did not bring the awaited results, as the administrators were soon arrested, sentenced to labour camps, exile or deportation from the USSR or executed After World War II the overtly existing church hierarchy was tolerated to some extent only in two Baltic republics (Latvia and Lithuania). In a hidden, though rather symbolical form, it also existed in other parts of the USSR throughout the whole period of its existence. The latent title of the apostle administrators from 1926 to the post-war times was given to the priests of the St. Louis Church in Moscow, residing first in the French Embassy and later in the USA Embassy. Their main role was primarily of an informative character. The latent bishops in the post-war period were: Alexander Chira (1897-1983) in Karaganda (Kazakhstan) and Jan Cieński (1905-1992) in Ukraine.

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