PASTORAL LETTER FROM THE BISHOPS OF KAZAKHSTAN
On the occasion of the
CONSECATION OF THE NEW CATHEDRAL OF KARAGANDA!
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ,
On 9th September 2012, the consecration of the new Cathedral of the Diocese of Karaganda will take
place. The ceremony itself will be performed by the Dean of the College of Cardinals, His Eminence the
Right Reverend Cardinal Angelo SODANO, who will be acting as the personal representative of His
Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. This solemn event is of supreme religious importance not only for Church of
Karaganda itself, but for all Catholics in the other Diocese of Kazakhstan also, as indeed for the nation as
a whole.
During the tragic era of the religious and political persecution carried out by the Soviet regime, the city
of Karaganda with its out-lying districts earned for itself hideous notoriety as being a place of repression
and banishment for anyone and everyone, of whatever nationality, ethnic group or religious
denomination, who dared to challenge atheistic materialism. It was known at that time under the codename of “KARLAG”, an anagram made up from the two words: KARaganda and LAGer The Karaganda
Concentration-Camps, covering area as big as the national territory of present-day France, was, apart
from being one of the largest, one the most important and notorious of all Soviet concentration-camps
under Stalin’s dictatorship. Taking into consideration the countless numbers of prisoners who passed
through the Karlag forced-labour camps, suffering and eventually perishing there, it is fair to say that
soil of Kazakhstan has in no other place been so thoroughly soaked in the blood and tears of more
innocent victims of Communist repression than here in Karaganda. On his first visit to Karaganda, the
Patriarch of All the Russias, His Excellency Alexis II, stated that this city is like a huge “antimins” or altarveil spread reverently over the mortal remains of all the martyrs who lie here.
From the tragic depths of those dark and difficult years of atheism and religious persecution, Karaganda
and its surroundings was illuminated with the shining light of the numerous priests who lived, worked
and finally died here. Let us call to mind just the more renowned of them: Blessed Nikita Budek, bishop
and martyr; Blessed Alexis Zaritzki, priest and Martyr; the Servant of God Bishop Alexander Khira; the
Servant of God Father Vladimir Bukovinsky.
On 29th June 1980, for the first time in over six centuries, a Catholic Bishop celebrated the liturgy
publically on the soil of Kazakhstan, robed in his Episcopal vestments and holding his crozier. The Bishop
in question was Mgr. Alexander Khira. The last bishop before him, when the Episcopal seat was at
Almaty, was a man named Mgr. Richard of Burgundy, who died a martyr’s death about the year 1340.
On 13th April 1991, Blessed John-Paul II nominated Fr. John-Paul Lenga MIS as the first Catholic Bishop of
Karaganda, and the church of St. Joseph became the first Diocesan Cathedral in the history of the newly
established Republic of Kazakhstan. Having carefully examined the growth of church life and the
development its structures in his Diocese, Archbishop John-Paul Lenga ventually came to the conclusion
that it was absolutely imperative to erect a new and more fitting edifice that would not be so far from
the central parts of the city and that would at least have on the outside the traditional appearance of a
Cathedral.
In the Archbishop’s view, the new Cathedral should also stand as an epitaph to the memory of all the
victims of the Karlag and be a place of prayer and expiation for the countless crimes perpetrated by a
totalitarian and godless regime in Karaganda and Kazakhstan against Jesus Christ and against human
dignity. Apart from that, the new Cathedral was intended to be a visible profession of Catholic faith and
an instrument of evangelization, with the emphasis on “evangelization through stone, through beauty
and through culture”.
All three of these ends, -dignified appearance, epitaph as a place of expiation in honour of the victims
the Karlag, instrumental symbol of evangelization-, possess an eminently pastoral character, for they
aim to give greater glory to God and lead to salvation the greatest number of people possible. With this
in mind, Archbishop John-Paul Lenga decided towards the end of 2002 to start work on the construction
of a new Diocesan Cathedral which was to be dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin Mary of Fatima.
Considering the fact that one of its main aims was to act as a monument to the memory of the victims of
the Communist regime and as a symbol of expiation for crimes of the latter, it was more than fitting,
from the spiritual point of view, that the new Cathedral be placed under the patronage of Our Lady of
Fatima.
As everybody knows, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared for the first time on 13th May 1917 o the three
young shepherds Lucia, Francisco and Jacinto in the Portuguese hamlet of Fatima. In the course of these
apparitions, Our Blessed Lady spoke of the dangerous errors which Russia would spread throughout the
whole world. And indeed, a few short months later in that same year the so-called October Revolution
broke out, transforming that country into the first known government in the history of mankind to be
run by the ideology of Marxist Communism. The Soviet Union, which our beloved country of Kazakhstan
had no choice but to join, immediately started spreading atheism and religious persecution throughout
every part of the world.
On 13th May 2003, the anniversary-day of the first Fatima apparition of Our Blessed Lady, the Karaganda
Diocese obtained a suitable plot of land on which to build the new Cathedral. And on the following 18th
May, Blessed John-Paul II’s birthday, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State, who
happened to be on an State visit to the Republic of Kazakhstan, blessed this plot of land and the
foundation-stone of the new Cathedral. This piece of land near the centre of Karaganda, which was
finally suitable for the new Cathedral, had been granted through the kind offices of the President of
Kazakhstan, His Excelly, Dr. N.A Nazarbajeff. We welcome this gesture with gratitude and consider it to
be a token of the esteem of the Republic of Kazakhstan towards the Catholic Church, as was expressed
by the Head of State in his welcoming address to the Pope of the Roman Church, John-Paul II, during
their meeting in Astana “The Catholic Church is for us a foreign reality brought in from abroad. She
preserves and renews those cultural and spiritual relationships which she developed in the distant past.”
Actual work on the construction of the new Cathedral began on 3rd September 2003, the day on which
the Church celebrates the memory of Pope Saint Gregory the Great, whom the Orthodox Church
venerates as Gregory of the Double Word. The erection of this Cathedral was made possible in large
measure by the financial assistance received from the “Society for the Construction of the Cathedral to
the Mother of all Nations”, or to give it its original German title, “Verein für den Aufbau der Kathedrale
zur Mutter aller Nationen.” This Society was founded by Mrs. Agnes Ritter who lives in a tiny mountain
village called Viktorberg near the town of Feldkirch in the Austrian region of Voralpberg. More than
thirty ago Mrs. Agnes Ritter heard in her soul a divine voice calling her to build a shrine in honour of Our
Lady- Mother of all Nations, in the East, and specifically in the mountains of Altay.
Unfortunately, it later became evident that it would be impossible to build such a church in that region.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Agnes Ritter and the Society she had founded proved to be an instrument of Divine
Providence for the work of completion on the new Cathedral of Karaganda. We can rightfully state that
without the extremely valuable contribution made by this organization our Cathedral could never have
been built in its present splendour. Consequently, and in deference to Mrs. Agnes Ritter’s wishes, the
initial title of the Cathedral was extended somewhat; it now reads: “The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin
Mary of Fatima – Mother of all Nations”. It was only thanks to the generous offerings it received from so
many people living in Austria, in other European countries and even far away on other continents that
Mrs. Ritter’s Society was able to help so much. Frequently these benefactors were just ordinary people,
pensioners who willingly gave up their modest savings for the sake of the greater glory of God and of
Our Blessed Lady, as well as to serve those who would benefit spiritually from this new Cathedral.
Many people in Kazakhstan too contributed to the erection of this Cathedral. First of all, we should
mention those who helped with their prayers and spiritual sacrifices, without forgetting those who
generously gave alms to help with the construction: our dear old ladies, the children and indeed people
from every walk of life.
It goes without saying that our dear and venerable Archbishop John-Paul Lenga is the one who most
deserves gratitude. With great courage and unshakeable trust in Divine Providence, he started
construction-work on the Cathedral which he almost succeeded in completing, overcoming with God’s
help unending difficulties and obstacles of every description in the process. May Our Blessed Lord,
through the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, reward all his efforts with abundant graces from heaven.
No less deserving of recognition is Bishop Athanasius Schneider whose contribution to the work of
building, equipping and embellishing the Cathedral has been enormous. He has been very active in
looking for benefactors who with their offerings have helped the original plan for a new Cathedral
materialize into a concrete reality. Moreover, he played an important role in coordinating the activities
of the benefactors, the local planners and the hand-workers. Thanks to His Lordship’s efforts, hundreds
if not thousands of people in every corner of the globe have learned of the new Cathedral being built in
Karaganda.
The Consecration of any Cathedral is a most favourable time for the faithful to receive abundant graces
for their own spiritual renewal, because any church which is materially visible is merely a symbol of the
invisible sanctuary of the Holy Trinity which is hidden deep inside every baptized person who is living in
the state of sanctifying grace. While admiring a church’s external beauty, and when they go inside to
pray, the faithful should recall the words of Holy Scripture: “Do you not know then, that you are God’s
temple?” (1 Cor. 3, 16). “Your are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6, 16), “Draw close to Christ, the
living stone, rejected by men, but chosen by God as precious, and you yourselves, like living stones,
build yourselves into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, so as to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pt. 2,4-5).
From the very beginning of the history of salvation, God ordered men to build temples and shrines in his
honour and to give them the beauty and dignity befitting a holy place. Abel, the Just, was the first
person to offer God an offering that was pleasing to him (Gn. 4, 4). The Patriarch Jacob built an altar on
the place he called “Bethel” or “God’s house, Heaven’s Gate” (Gn. 28, 16-18). God himself called the
spot on which Moses stood “holy ground” and ordered him “to take off his shoes” (Ex.3, 5). The Old
Testament Temple was built in its smallest details according to God’s indecations (cf. Ex. chap. 26; 2 Kgs
chap. 5-6), and it was solemnly consecrated by Solomon ( cf. 2 Kgs 8,22-66). Our Lord Jesus Christ bowed
in deep reverence before this temple and called it his Father’s House (cf. Lk. 2,49), “a house of prayer”
(Lk. 19,46), where he himself would often spend time in prayer. Observing how some people desecrated
the sanctity of this place by conducting their worldly affairs in it, Jesus was moved with sacred anger and
cast them all out of it (cf. Jn. 2,12-22); the evangelist comments on Jesus’ gesture as follows: “I am
consumed with zeal for your house” (Jn. 2,17 and Ps.68,10). While showing such zeal for the sanctity of
God’s sanctuary, the Redeemer revealed to us a sublime truth: His own sacred Body, sacrificed and
resurrected, is itself God’s true temple (cf. Jn. 2,19.21).
The holy Apostles bequeathed to the Church and to the faithful of all generations this same spirit of
deep reverence which Christ himself showed in his attitude to this special place of God’s presence on
earth. The Lord Himself, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles and all generations of Christians up to the
present day have always prayed using the beautiful words taken from Holy Scripture which we find in
Psalm 25: “Lord, I have loved Thy house and the place where Thy glory dwells” Ps. 25,8). The Catholic
Church is that place where the Word made flesh, the God-Man, dwells among us (cf. Jn. 1,14). The
Church itself and all it contains point towards the sacrificed and risen Body of Christ: first and foremost,
the altar, but most sublimely, the Hosts in the Tabernacle where the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of
Jesus Christ are really, truly present even now.
May this Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima - Mother of all Nations, become a
symbol for the future, a place where Catholics and people of other different nationalities can find Jesus
Christ, the only Saviour of man, adore him and love him, and thus obtain abundant graces from God for
their well-being in time and in eternity. May the Virgin Mary, the Mother of all Nations, lead all people
to her Son.
Let us address to God the following prayer taken from the ritual of the consecration of a church:
“Lord, our God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints, hear our prayers.
Make this house, which we now consecrate to Thy name, a house of grace and salvation. Help Thy
people, congregated in this house, to adore Thee in Spirit and in Truth and to grow in charity. Through
Christ, Our Lord. Amen.”
With a blessing and with love in Christ, the Bishops and Ordinary Bishops of Kazakhstan:
Astana, 30.04.2012
+Tomasz Peta, Archbishop and Metropolitan Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary’s in Astana,
President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Kazakhstan;
+Janusz Kaleta, Bishop of Karaganda, Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau;
+Jose’ Luis Mumbiela, Bishop of the Diocese of the Blessed Trinity in Almaty;
+Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Mary’s in Astana;
+ Mitrophy Highpriest Vassily Govera, Delegate of the Congregation of the Eastern Churches for the
Greek-Catholics of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.