Pope Pius XII and Russia - The Destruction of Catholic Oriental Churches

The Destruction of Catholic Oriental Churches

After the war, the Russian Orthodox Church was given some freedom by the government of Joseph Stalin, but not the Orthodox Oriental Churches which was united with Rome. Leaders of the Orthodox Oriental Churches faced intense pressure to break with Rome and unite with Moscow. Pope Pius addressed specifically the Ruthenian Catholic Church located in the Ukraine. Ruthenian Catholics call themselves Rusyns. They are closely related to the Ukrainians and speak a dialect of the same language. The traditional Rusyn homeland extends into northeast Slovakia and the Lemko region of southeast Poland. Until 1922, the area was largely a part of Austria-Hungary. After becoming Polish, which follows the Latin rite, Polonisation and significant problems for all Orthodox, including united Christians developed. Some Ruthenians, resisting Polonisation, felt deserted by the Vatican and returned to the Russian Orthodox Church during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XI.

After 1945, it was claimed that the union with Rome was a Polish conspiracy to dominate and wipe out the Oriental culture of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: United orthodox faithful and priests had to suffer under Polish bishops of the Latin Rite and Polonisation. But they were apprehended by the Soviet Army under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, and therefore, continued ties to Rome were made impossible. The new Patriarch Alexius I of Moscow called on all Catholics in the Soviet Union for a separation from Rome:

• Liberate yourself! You must break the Vatican chains, which throw you into the abyss of error, darkness and spiritual decay. Hurry, return to the your true mother, the Russian Orthodox Church!

Pope Pius XII replied: "Who does not know, that Patriarch Alexius I recently elected by the dissident bishops of Russia, openly exalts and preaches defection from the Catholic Church in a letter lately addressed to the Ruthenian Church, a letter, which contributes not a little to the persecution?" Pope Pius never shared Roosevelt’s war time optimism regarding Stalin’ allegedly changed attitudes towards religious freedom and tolerance and related guarantees from the newly established United Nations. Orientales Omnes refers to United Nations resolutions of a world of tolerance, free of religious persecution . Pius continues, "This had given us hope that peace and true liberty would be granted everywhere to the Catholic Church, the more so since the Church has always taught, and teaches, that obedience to the ordinances of the lawfully established civil power, within the sphere and bounds of its authority, is a duty of conscience. But, unfortunately, the events we have mentioned have grievously and bitterly weakened, have almost destroyed, our hope and confidence so far as the lands of the Ruthenians are concerned."

The Pope knew not only about the attempts to separate the United Churches from Rome. He also was aware, that in months preceding the encyclical Orientales Omnes, all Catholic bishops of the Ukrainian Church had been arrested, including Josyf Slipyj, Gregory Chomysyn, John Laysevkyi, Nicolas Carneckyi, and Josaphat Kocylovskyi. Some, including Bishop Nicetas Budka, perished in Siberia. Subjected to Stalinist Show Trials, they all received severe sentencing. The remaining leaders of the hierarchies and heads of all seminaries and Episcopal offices were arrested and tried in 1945 and 1946. July 1, 1945, some three hundred priests of the United Church wrote to Molotov. They protested the arrest of all bishops and large parts of the Catholic clergy. After the Church was thus robbed of all its leadership, a “spontaneous movement” for separation from Rome, and unification with the Russian Orthodox Church developed. Mass arrests of priests followed. In Lemko, some five hundred priests were jailed in 1945 Giovan or sent to a Gulag, officially called, “an unknown destination because of political reasons”.

The Catholic Church's public presence in Russia was annihilated. Church institutions were confiscated and expropriated; churches, monasteries and seminaries closed and looted, After the war, the Catholic United Churches were integrated under the Moscow Patriarchy, after all residing bishops and apostolic administrators were arrested on March 6, 1946. The Catholic Church of Ukraine was thus liquidated. All properties were turned over to the Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of Moscow.

After Joseph Stalin died in 1953, “peaceful coexistence” became subject of numerous discussions. In his Christmas Message of 1954, Pius XII defined possibilities and preconditions for peaceful coexistence. He indicated Vatican willingness to practical cooperation, whenever possible in the interest of the faithful. The slow pace of de-Stalinisation and the Soviet crack-down of the Hungarian Revolution did not produce results, aside from modest improvements in Poland and Yugoslavia after 1956. January 1958, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko expressed willingness of Moscow, to have formal relations with the Vatican in light of the position of Pope Pius XII on World peace and the uses of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, a position, which he claimed was identical with Kremlin policy. The Vatican did not respond officially, and reported unofficial contacts will not be known until 2028, when Vatican Archives open access to all documents of the pontificate of Pius XII.