Kiev: The Miracle of Finding Themselves Together

Little more than ten years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 300 people, from 14 former Soviet republics, met for the first time to discuss and exchange experiences; for anyone with at least a little knowledge of the post-Soviet reality, the exceptional nature of this event is clear. It is a completely new initiative–and until a short time ago unthinkable–in countries prostrated by decades of repression and internal antireligious propaganda, and prevented from having contacts and regular, stable exchanges of experiences with the rest of the Christian world. Let us not forget that, after the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Soviet Union, dialogue between its various national components was virtually blocked by hostility and rivalry, rekindled at the right time by the ideology of forced “Russification”–or rather “Sovietization.” The challenge is of stereotypes already entrenched and not always easily overcome even today. A truly great theme was necessary, as the title proclaims, “Being Witnesses to Christ Today,” chosen by the Congress of Lay Catholics of Europe and the East, promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity in Kiev from October 8th–12th. Along with the representatives of the laity from these countries, led by their various pastors, also present were representatives of the lay movements at work in that geographical area, and representatives of Catholic organizations that are working with churches in Eastern Europe.

The Congress opened with the reading of a letter of greeting from the Holy Father, who, recalling martyrdom (“the terrible division that provoked the stifling of the Christian communities of the East”), stressed the new responsibility, entrusted to lay people, “to transmit to future generations the heritage of the Christian faith.” It is right here in Kiev, John Paul II added, the place where Russia was baptized so long ago, that Christians are called to “reconsolidate the awareness of their own Baptism,” to become aware once more that they are “co-responsible for the building of the Christian community, sharing in the mission of the Church of announcing to men the Good News of Salvation.”

There was a series of lectures and roundtable discussions dedicated to the central themes of the mission of the layperson. The Archbishop of Prague, Miloslav Vlk, speaking of the “Church’s mission at the dawn of the third millennium,” offered a personal and moving witness of the years of “forced laity” lived under the Communist regime: “Under Communism, we had nothing else; the structures were all against us, but we had God–no-one could take away from us our life in Him. Even without priests, really thanks to the laity, we were able to meet secretly, in small groups, in the woods, so as to live the Gospel. No-one could stop us.” Recalling the years of persecution, during which he lived as a window-cleaner in Prague because he was forbidden to exercise his priestly ministry, Vlk stressed the person of Christ as “the source of hope,” and the need to embrace the crucified Jesus in the “sacrament of pain” so as to be able to understand, to follow, and to announce the Risen Christ.

People were very moved by the presence of Cardinal Kazimierz S´wia’tek, current Primate of the Byelorussian Catholic Church and veteran of the Soviet work camps (where he spent 10 years, from 1945 to 1954). In his address (“The blood of martyrs is the seed of new life: yesterday’s martyrs question today’s Christians”), recounting his own history and the history of his Church, and giving a simple but moving sketch of episodes of genuine Christian heroism, the Cardinal authoritatively entrusted the present-day laity with the mission of witnessing to Christ totally, a mission that his generation carried out through resistance and faithfulness to Christ at the cost of life itself.

In at atmosphere visibly marked by the perception of living the miracle of “unity in multiformity,” the numerous interventions of witnesses and the participants’ helpful questions drew a dramatic but miraculous picture of the situation: albeit amidst poverty, difficulties and of all kinds problems that are found–in different forms–in the former Soviet Union, the guiding thread was the acknowledgment of the Church already beginning, timid and mysterious but totally real, which answers the desires and expectations of the tormented humanity of these countries. Witnesses included an ex-soldier of the Red Army who became a priest ten years ago after hearing a phrase from a Byelorussian priest, whose Church he had been sent to watch (and here he recognized as Cardinal S´wia’tek); Jurij from Char’kov, who was converted by reading the books of Fr Men’ and is now building a community “with the same ecumenical, universal spirit;” Sergej of Tajikistan, who lives in a tiny and very young Catholic community–but a community of true friends, he points out with a certain pride–in totally Islamic surroundings.

In this context, there was eager expectation for the witness of the ecclesial movements, which, as Guzman Carriquiry, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, said in his introduction, are a sign of the times and respond to the Holy Father’s invitation to “make the Church a home and school of communion.” Giancarlo Cesana, who presented Communion and Liberation, insisted exactly on this aspect in his interventions: Communism, which also had a great following in Italy, preaches that liberation comes from an analysis, but we say that it comes from a friendship in which even pain and death no longer make you afraid. Unity is the road that God has chosen for communicating Himself; we respect Him as the origin of happiness and freedom. And then education, a method that introduces us to reality. The encounter with God is made of the same stuff as the encounter Andrew and John had: “Come and see.” It was astounding to hear these words repeated before the multicolored auditorium of Kiev by the lady from Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) who later stopped me in the corridor and asked me for my telephone number, since she has a daughter in Moscow who is studying at the Academy of Fine Arts and would like her to “have an encounter.” Then there was the university student who works in the local organizing committee and wants to understand better what faith has to do with life, with reason, and with science. He tells me that one of his teachers had been to the Meeting in Rimini (we discovered that this teacher is a great friend of mine, who invited us to Char’kov to hold a seminar on The Risk of Education), and in the end takes a note that in two weeks’ time there will be the “Opening Day” in Moscow. A meeting is necessary, and the encounter is always a miracle: Oksana testifies to this, a friend of ours from Moscow who began teaching at the university a few months ago and is discovering the mystery that passes through the relationship with one another. And Julija from Alma-Ata speaks of work as the possibility of feeling free, of embracing daily life and others as the face of Christ.