Jul 21, 2008 / 20:10 pm
The Catholic Church in Kaliningrad is enjoying “more and more” growth as the area continues to recover from decades of communist rule, Monsignor Jerzy Steckiewicz has told the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). However, the severely weakened state of the region’s families is a particular concern for the Church.
During the communist era all parishes were banned in Kaliningrad, the Russian territorial enclave situated between Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic Sea. The first Orthodox parish was established there in 1985, while one Catholic as well as one Protestant parish were established in 1991. At present there are 23 parishes within the Kaliningrad territory, where Catholics make up 5 percent of the population.
When Monsignor Jerzy was asked to give the exact number of Catholics in the region, he replied: “I can give you a precise answer to that -- there are more and more of them!”
Monsignor Jerzy, the vicar general of Kaliningrad, told ACN that the number of baptisms and marriages is increasing in the region. He said faith is reawakened in many individuals who attend the baptisms, marriages, or funerals of friends and relatives. The monsignor said he tries to conduct every such liturgy in a beautiful and dignified manner to convey the “beauty of the Faith.”