THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 37, 19 June 1891, Page 7

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN RUSSIA.

W» take the following passages from a paper contributed by a writer signing himself Thomas Stevens to an American exchange :- Now, as ever, and in Russia no less than in all other parts of the world, the prie its of tbe Catholic Church are the most fearless and aggressive of the clergy. In China, in Africa, in the most barbarous quarters of the earth the Catholic missionary wins the admiration of all who hare had the opportunity to observe his fearlessness and dogged perseverance in the faoe of difficulty and danger. Their audacity Is splendid ( and the writer was, therefore, not particularly mprised to find them risking Siberia and all manner of evil consequences in Butsia, as fearlessly as fever in Africa or mobs in China. After relating several racy stories about the performance of orthodox pops, my informant plunged eloquently into the subjec t of religions persecution in Russia, treating chiefly of the Catholics. The audience ohamber was the Father's comfortable rooms in the college , attached to a Catholio church on Nevsky. Ths Catholio religion, I was assured, was gaining ground In Russia, not only In spite of the persecution directed against it, but as a direct result of it. Religion thrives on persecution nowadays, as it has always done ; and while it gains strength with every blow that falls upon it, the arm that delivers the blow grows feebler in proportion. The absence of bitterness in his tone when telling of the manner in which tbe Government applies the screws of persecution was striking. He talked like one sure of his ground and confident of ultimate viotory. A hundred Oatho lie priests, be said, had returned from Siberia during the present year, having served ont their terms of exile. Ninety ol them were disqualified by the Government from hearing confessions and performing priestly functions, and they were only allowed to hold Masses with locked doors. Yet there were a hundred others ready to follow where they had led, if necessary, for the triumph of religious liberty. Tbe reverend Father puffed his American cigar with vigorous satisfaction as he • related an incident that had occurred in St. Petersburg but a short time before my interview. Father W ' a brother Dominican, is religious instructor in eight schools in St. Petersbnrgh. He speaks several languages, and having to do with a j cosmopolitan set of students, he used his polyglot accomplishments to the best advantage in their interests. With the French boy who knew little of any other tongue the Father would of course, get on better in French ; with the German student, in German, Ice, Father ' W , having a keener eye to the advancement of his charges than to his own personal safety did not even stop at using Polish in his intercourse with students who could understand him better in that language, though well aware that Polish in the schools is forbidden under severe penalties. Somehow, tbe palice got wind of what was goiog on, and at midnight, in the Marine School, on Vasili Ostroff, was heard tbe all too familiar command to open, "In the name of the Csar ." A nocturnal descent was made on the school by the secret police. The stadan ts were all tumbled out of their beds and questions in regard to Father W 's alleged use of Polish. Between midnight and morning sach of the other seven schools were in turn visited in like manner. 11 The boys were trumps," said Father T . " Not a boy in any of the schools would confess that their tutor bad made use of the interdicted language," A sore thorn ia the side of the Ecclesiastical authorities of Russia ia the question of confessing the Uniats. The Uniats are the oflxpring of the attempt made at the Council of Florence to unite the long-estranged Eastern and Western churches. The Orthodox Greeks claim that thsir representatives at the Council sold them and have refused to recognise the right of the Uniats to go to confession to a Oatholio priest. Mr Pobedonestaeff, the Procureur of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Greek Church, and— some say not excepting the Csar— is the most powerful and influential person in Russia, a sort of nineteenth century inquisitor. If the spirit of the age would permit him to do so, he would probably be burning heretics at the stakes on tbe Champs de Mars of St. Petersburg, or tying them in sacks and poking them down through holes in the ice on the Neva, He is understood to be ths prime moving spirit in the present reactionary movement that is going on in Russia and to wield a pernicious influence over the Cs<»r, whose power he turns into an instrument of punishment against bis adversaries. He is peculiarly determined on the question of the Uniats, whom he persists in treating as legally Orthodox members of the State Church whether they will or no. At Catholic Churches, where it is suspected that Uoiats are in the babit of going to confession, policemen ate stationed at tbe door, with authority to demand of all who would enter a passport proving that they are Catholics and not Uniata or Orthodox. The priests are also required to see tbe passports of those who come to them to confess and if they confess a Uniat or an Orthodox the penalty is Siberia, or the punishment monastery is Agloois.

Aglonis ie a monMtery in a wretchedly poor, out-of-the-world district, a few boars from Petersburg, where the monks are ia rags and tatters and barely manage to keep themselves from starring. Becalcitrant Catholic priests who are not sent to Siberia are com. pelled to take op their quarters in AglonU, where they le*d a wretched existence, subjected to all manner of annoying inconveniences. Amongst the inmates at present is Father Leonard Zidjik, of Lublin, Poland, who are sent there for the crime of confessing a Uniat. For some time he has been suffering with a dangerous throat disease and has begged permission to go to Petersburg for treatment His requests have always been refused. There are now in exile in the drevy northern province of Oloneta all the monks of the Dominican monastery of Lublin, who several years ago were exiled en matte aod their monastery disbanded for the deadly sin of confessing Uniata. Oloneti is a semi-wilderness of forest, swamp and lake, thinly inhabited, and without a single Catholic or Uniat to tempt the spiritual mettle of the exiled Dominicans. They are not allowed to perform Masses or hold communion services, even among themselves. The Government allows them eight roubles (5 dollars) a month to keep them from starving. In St. Petersburg the spirit of persecution is, of course, lest brutally naked than in the provinces. St. Petersburg ia only half Russian in outward and visible particulars, aod there the authorities never forget that all Europe is looking on. Here the Orthodox Inquisition contents itaelf with sending spies to the Catholic and Protestant churches to listen to the sermons and carefully watching the prissta and parsons in the hope of catching them tripping within the letter of the law. For some time the Catholia Union of St. Petersburg has been petitioning for leave to found an orphan asylum. " No, no, I will grant you nothing ! " was the last reply they had received from the late Minister of the Interior, Tolstoi. Americans can form no conception of the insufferable tyranny of the Russian provincial police, even when dealing with Russian*. When having to do with heretics their overbearing insolence is hardly supportable. In the western provinces, whe c the people are mostly Catholics and Lutheran*, Poles and Germans, the sextons of the Catholic churches are required to ring the bell when a Russian bishop passes by. In 1888 on the estate of Count Tijkevitch, a Polish nobleman in the government of Wilna, the people had for some reason been forbidden to worship inside the chapel. They had been keeping up the services, however, oateide. One day they received notice that a Bassian bishop was coming, and that the bill would have to be rung as usual. This they refused to do unless they were allowed to worship in the church. The end of it was the district police mounted into the belfry, and as the Russian bishop passed, himself rang tbe betl. The great majority of the Catholics in Russia are Poles, and ia Poland and the Baltic Provinces the agents of the Government inquisition and the Catholic priests keep up a sort of monkey«andparrot tims generally. Churches are being constantly shut by the police, and the priests exiled or disqualified from the performance of their functions. When their churches are shut up, the priests tare to the woodi or fields, and appoint secret rendesvouses for their people to come to them to confess. The priests are not allowed to teach the children the Catechism except in secret in the sacristy, lest a word of whal they commnnicate should percbaoce reach an orthodox ear. All this badgering and baiting has to be endured and fought against by the Catholics, and still the screw is continually tightened. Recently one more ingenious twist has been given. ▲ new rule was passed by which any army officer who marries a Catholic wifa forfeits hia regular turn of promotion, those behind him being promoted over his head, Some years ago, the authorities even went the ridiculous length of getting up a book of ready made sermons for the use of the Catholic priests, who were forbidden to preach an independent word fr and they likewise had the Catholic Masses translated into Russian. Latin was forbidden, and the Masses were to be given in Rustiaa from the Government translation, in order that the spies who attended could understand all that passed. This outrageous proceeding was, however, found to be ths last straw which the persecuted camel was determined not to bear. Father Petrovitch, of Wilna, took bis copy of the translated Masses and the book of Russian-written sermons into the pulpit with him, and before all the people lit candles and burned them up. He was immediately incarcerated in jail, but the Government perceived that serious trouble would come of trying to enforce this diabolical piece of tyranny, and at present this law is allowed to remain a dsad letter.