Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk

The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Siberia and the Far East in the 19th — 20th centuries.

The appearance of Catholics in Siberia and the Far East is connected, first of all, with political exile of the 17th-19th centuries. From the beginning of the 19th century, the first Catholic missionary priests came here, and in 1820 an Irkutsk parish was established, which included the vast territory of the Irkutsk province and the Yakutsk region. In 1836 there was a parish in Krasnoyarsk , in 1866 in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, which in 1890 was transferred to Vladivostok . After the 1917 revolution , a large-scale attack on religion begins. Temples are closed and destroyed, priests are being repressed. The Catholic Church , which in the USSR by the end of the 1930s practically ceases to exist, did not escape this fate.

The modern history of the diocese

It was founded on May 18, 1999 as the apostolic administration of Eastern Siberia , and since February 2002 - the diocese. Until 2003, the official title of the ordinarium (head) of the diocese sounded like "administrator of Eastern Siberia and the prefecture of Karafuto, " which provoked protests from the Russian government. After raising the status of the apostolic administration to the diocese in 2002, Bishop Jerzy Mazur was expelled from the country without explanation. In 2003, Bishop Kirill Klimovich was appointed in his place.

Divided into deans :

Irkutsk dean's office:

• Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God (see also: Roman Catholic Church (Irkutsk) )
• Angarsk: Parish of St. Joseph
• Bratsk: Parish of St. Cyril and Methodius
• Listvyanka: Spiritual Center of the Diocese of St. Joseph, House of them. John Paul II “Unity”
• Slyudyanka: Parish of St. George
• Usolye-Sibirsky: Parish of St. Raphael Kalinovsky
• Usolye-Sibirsky: Parish of St. Raphael Kalinovsky; Sisters Monastery Carmelitok Barefoot
• Ulan-Ude: Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
• Chita: Parish of Saints Peter and Paul

Krasnoyarsk dean's office:

• Church of the Transfiguration (Krasnoyarsk)
• Achinsk: Parish of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Bogotol: Parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
• Kansk: Parish of the Holy Trinity
• Norilsk: Parish of St. John the Evangelist
• Abakan: Parish of the Descent of the Holy Spirit

Yakut dean's office:

• Aldan: Parish of St. Nicholas the Pleasant
• Neryungri: The Coming of Divine Mercy
• Yakutsk: The Coming of Christ - The Sun of Truth

Vladivostok dean's office:

• Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Vladivostok)
• Arseniev: Parish of the Annunciation
• Lesozavodsk: Parish of Visiting Elizabeth Mary
• Find: Parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Pacific
• Ussuriysk: Parish of the Nativity of Christ; Male monastic community of the Order of the Brothers of Lesser St. Francis of Assisi
• Blagoveshchensk: Parish of the Transfiguration
• Khabarovsk: Parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary
• Komsomolsk-on-Amur: The Parish of the Holy Family from Nazareth

Magadan dean's office:

• Magadan: Advent of the Nativity of Christ
• Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Parish of St. Theresa the Baby Jesus
• Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk: Parish of St. James

Cathedral of the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God . Construction began on June 10, 1999 , and on September 8, 2000 the consecration of the cathedral took place.

According to official statistics of the Roman Catholic Church, as of 2015 , for 14 970 000 people living in the diocese, 52 500 (0.4%) are Catholics. On the territory of the diocese there are 40 priests, that is, 1312 Catholics per 1 priest ^[1] .

1. His Grace Bishop Jerzy Mazur from February 11, 2002 to April 17, 2003
2. His Grace Bishop Kirill Klimovich since April 17, 2003

• Official site
• David M. Cheney. Diocese of San Giuseppe a Irkutsk (English) . Catholic-Hierarchy (3 June 2015). Date of appeal April 25, 2016.