The consecration of the parish church realised a dream of the Slovak Salesians to whom the Salesian foundation present in the city of Yakutsk in this part of Russia for the last 15 years is entrusted. The church was to have been opened last year but a series of bureaucratic difficulties caused a postponement.
Archbishop Antonio Mennini, Nuncio Apostolic for the Russian Federation and for Uzbekistan presided at the liturgy of the consecration. Concelebrating were Bishop Kirill Klimovich of Irkutsk, several priests from the two Salesian communities in Siberia, Yakutsk and Aldan, Fr Karol Maník, Provincial of the Salesians in Slovakia, and Fr Giuseppe Pellizzari, Provincial of the Special Circumscription of East Europe (EST).
Joining the faithful of the Yakutsk parish were some representatives of the parish community of Aldan, 500 kilometres away.
Two other significant events accompanied the consecration. The first on Saturday 14 March involved the Salesians taking part in a meeting with a representative of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation; the second early on Sunday afternoon was ecumenical in character as Bishop Klimovich of Irkutsk, and other priests were very cordially received by the Orthodox Bishop Zosima of Yakutsk.
The two meetings demonstrated the cordial relations and the mutual esteem which the Salesians have established with the civil authorities and with the Orthodox Church.
The day of celebration finished in the best Salesian tradition with a musical inspired by the novel “Quo vadis”. The show told the story of the adventures of a community made up of faithful originally from the place and of the descendents of Poles, Lithuanians and other migrant peoples at different times in these lands.
Published 17/03/2009
