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The History of the Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan

With the liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine in 1946 all the bishops and many priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After Stalin's death many priests were freed. The majority decided to work in the underground all across the Soviet Union, serving exiled Catholics who had been forbidden to return to Ukraine. This in fact was the beginning of the Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan, where thousands of Ukrainians from western Ukraine had been deported since 1939.

In the late 1950s many priests ministered on a regular basis, mostly in Karaganda, which had the largest community of exiled Ukrainians. Among those who served were Bishop Oleksandr Khyra, Fr. Oleksey Zarytskyi, Fr. Nikolay Shaban and Fr. Stepan Pryshliak, to mention but a few. At first they had to meet in huts or at parishioners' homes. This did not, however, prevent the priests from serving mass, hearing confessions, baptizing and performing weddings. In 1979 Catholics in Karaganda received permission to build a church. Therefore from 1979 Greek Catholic priests had the opportunity to conduct masses in the Roman Catholic church.

In the early 1990s priests from Ukraine started to come to Karaganda. In 1996 the German charitable foundation Renovabis erected a little wooden church at the request of the Greek Catholics. At the end of that same year the Pope appointed Bishop Basil Medvit, of the Order of St. Basil the Great [OSBM], the apostolic visitator for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic communities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. On Christmas Day 1997 Bishop Medvit conducted his first visitation of the Kazakh communities.

In April 1997 Fr. Basil Hovera arrived in Karaganda for religious ministry. In 1997 Bishop Medvit, Archbishop Marian Oles and Jan Pavel Lenga, the local Roman Catholic Bishop, consecrated the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God on Palm Sunday in Karaganda. A few months later at Bishop Medvit's request Fr. Vidal Klymchuk, OSBM, arrived in Karaganda from Brazil to stay for two years.

The congregation in Karaganda has gradually begun to expand. Of great importance is the fact that more middle-aged people as well as youngsters and children began to attend the church. Separate services were now held for the youth. Since Karaganda is a large city, many parishioners were confronted with the problem of commuting to the church. Therefore another church was opened in the district where Greek Catholics reside. The German foundation Aid to the Church in Need donated money to purchase the facility. On June 3, 2001, Bishop Medvit and Bishop Lenga consecrated the new chapel.

After his first visit to Kazakhstan Bishop Medvit requested that nuns be sent to start a mission in the country. For two years three sisters have been coming to Karaganda every month to teach catechism. In June 2000 Sisters Vinkentiya Nazarkevich, Maryana Yakimets and Mikhailina Gornakevich arrived in Karaganda, where they opened the Holy Trinity house and started youth meetings and catechism classes.

Since Bishop Medvit was appointed visitator to Karaganda, he has visited Kazakhstan every year, meeting with parishioners in Karaganda and other cities. In April 1999 Fr. Iriney Babinets and Br. Anatoliy Holovchuk (both OSBM) came to Pavlodar from Ukraine. With the permission of Bishop Lenga services were held on the premises of the cathedral. In June 2000 with the help of the Ukrainian Diaspora in the US and Aid to the Church in Need, Fr. Iriney purchased a large house in Pavlodar, intending to make it into a church. May 20, 2001, Bishop Medvit, Archbishop Marian Oles and Bishop Tomash Peta, the apostolic administrator of Astana, consecrated the church of Sts. Peter and Paul.

During the last year of his religious service in Kazakhstan Fr. Iriney helped to start two other congregations outside Pavlodar, in Shidertakh (180 km from Pavlodar) and Berezovka (190km from Pavlodar) where he regularly comes to serve.

In 1999 Bishop Medvit came to Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where he visited the Ukrainian educational complex and met with the Ukrainian community. Since then Fr. Hovera has been coming from Karaganda to Astana every month to hold a service for the local congregation in the capital's Roman Catholic church. On May 27, 2001, Bishop Medvit celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Astana.

Throughout the last four years the amount of Greek Catholic congregations has increased from one to seven (2 in Karaganda, 1 in the Karaganda region, 1 in Astana, 1 in Pavlodar and 2 in the Pavlodar region). There is a possibility to start new congregations, though it is rather difficult now because of the lack of clergy.

The Greek Catholic Church also has three seminary students from Kazakhstan, one of them studying in Ukraine and two in Karaganda. Step by step the Greek Catholic Church is strengthening in this Central Asian country.

If you are interested in more specific information on the Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan, feel free to contact us at the following address:

470042, Karaganda
Pishchevaya St., 3
Fr. Basil Hovera
tel/fax 007(3212) 482564
pokrova@nursat.kz

This is a translation of a Russian-language text from the website of the Papal Visit to Kazakhstan, www.rc.net/kazakhstan