Christianity: Details about 'Russian Byzantine Catholic Church'
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The Russian Catholic Church is a Byzantine Rite church sui juris of the Catholic Church. Historically it represents a schism from the Russian Orthodox Church. It is now in communion with and subject to the authority of the Pope of Rome as defined by Eastern canon law. As of 2006, Russian Catholics have no hierarchy; their few parishes are served by priests ordained in other Byzantine Catholic Churches, former Orthodox priests, and Roman Catholic priests with biritual faculties, many of them Jesuits. In Russia, it is purported that after the gradual development of the East-West Schism, a tiny group of families maintained themselves as "Old Catholics," a name which should not be confused with the Old Catholic Churches of Europe and the U.S., who formally split with The Catholic Church in the wake of the reforms of the First Vatican Council. The status of this group or its relation to the curent Russian Catholic Church is unclear. The modern Russian Catholic church owes much to the inspiration of visionary poet and philosopher Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov (1853-1900), who urged, following Dante, that, just as the world needed the Tsar as a universal monarch, the Church needed the Pope as a universal heirarch. Following Solovyov's teachings an Orthodox priest, Nicholas Tolstoy, entered into communion with the See of Rome under the Melkite Greek-Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch. Solovyov received sacramental communion from Father Tolstoy believing that in doing so he remained a faithful member of the Orthodox Church. Orthodox authorities refer to Tolstoy as an apostate and "ex-priest," but tend to imply that Soloviev died an Orthodox Christian. Nevertheless, he never retracted his sentiments in favor of union with the Catholic Church, and to this day, many Russian Catholics refer to themselves as members of the Russian Orthodox Church in communion with Rome. The Russian Catholic Church formally united with Rome in 1905. The first Apostolic Exarchate for Russian Catholics was formed in 1917, but the Bolshevik Revolution soon followed, all but annihilating the community. In 1928, a second Apostolic Exarchate was set up for the Russian Catholics in China, based in Harbin. As of 2006, the two exarchates are still at least officially extant but have not yet been reconstituted. See alsoSource
Église grecque-catholique russe
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