Jun 10, 2008 / 21:08 pm
A French missionary has told the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that the Catholic minority in a Caucusian republic, though it shows great potential, could not survive without help from the West.
Brother Carl Emmanuel, of the Community of St. Jean, said the Catholic community in the Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, located in the European part of the Russian federation, numbers only a few hundred members among the republic’s 900,000 predominantly Muslim people. Despite its small size, Brother Carl said the community has “great potential” because the Catholic faith is being transmitted “with great purity.”
Around 50 Catholics meet every Sunday in the capital of Nalchik for Holy Mass. Brother Carl said it is not usual for Catholics to receive communion without first going to confession, and he noted that there was one adult baptism performed at both Christmas and Easter.
A local theater group has rehearsed a short play written by St. Therese of Lisieux and has even performed it in Moscow at a French-language theater competition. They have organized to take the play on a tour through France.