Russian officials block church from its site

BARNAUL, Russia — Catholics in the Siberian Altai region are encountering persistent obstacles in their work. The Barnaul, Russia, Catholic parish’s attempts to regain its church, dating from 1908, have been blocked since 1992.

The church was closed in 1932 and has served as Barnaul’s Chemist (drug store) No. 4 since 1937. In a thick file of correspondence on the issue with the local authorities, a typical response from the municipal administration to the church said the building cannot be returned to the church because the store serves 13 nearby medical points, four regional medical institutions and more than 30,000 local residents, as well as being the only place stocking a particular eyedrop. After the parish began its struggle with the local authority, a café was built onto the church and on top of the cemetery, along with an Orthodox chapel. The local governor claimed his main contribution to Orthodoxy had been in keeping Catholics out.

The authorities in the neighboring Altai Republic have similarly barred a Catholic church being built, despite local support for the church, citing the negative attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church who are “tired from the dominance of sects.”

In a striking contrast, the Moscow Patriarchate is currently seeking to build a traditional Russian wooden church in the predominantly Catholic Irish city of Limerick, where the first Russian Orthodox liturgy was held in a Catholic church in 2002.

The reasons given to the Irish ambassador for the plan — which is backed by the local Catholic diocese — were tourism and bearing “witness to Orthodox tradition and culture” to immigrants “and to Irish people.”