Roman Catholic Church in Estonia

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The Roman Catholic Church in Estonia is part of the World Roman Catholic Church .

history

Although the Christian tradition of the Estonians goes back to the first millennium, one can only speak of an organized Christianity from the 13th century. At that time there were three dioceses on Estonian territory: Tartu (Dorpat) , founded in 1224, Tallinn (Reval) , founded in 1229, and Ösel-Wiek , based in Haapsalu (Hapsal) , founded in 1263. Both bishops and priests were all foreigners (Danes and Germans); Strangely, no native clergy was trained. Until the 20th century, only two ethnically Estonian priests are known.

Paddis Monastery

In the 15th century, Estonia had 94 parishes with churches and chapels and 15 monasteries . Only three monasteries found themselves outside of cities: the Cistercian -Klöster Sokolov (founded in 1228) and Paddis (founded 1310) and the convent of St. Brigid in Pirita , also called (founded 1407) Marienthal.

The 15th century brought the Hanseatic cities , and all Estonia, an extraordinary wealth that well "pomp and ostentation, immoderate gluttony and fornication among the rulers and subjects." In the power struggles in Old Livonia between the rulers , d. H. the bishops, and the Teutonic Order and Cities, the former of course stood for the “old church”, while the cities hoped for new allies from the Reformation . So it is not surprising that the city councils played a special role in the introduction of the Reformation from 1524 onwards.

The temporary end of Catholicism in Estonia began with the Russo-Livonian War in 1558. On July 18, 1558, Tartu (Dorpat) surrendered to the Russians, who sent Bishop Hermann II Wesel to Moscow. In September 1559 Johannes von Münchhausen sold his diocese of Ösel-Wiek to King Friedrich II of Denmark . After Estonia's first Lutheran bishop, Duke Magnus von Holstein , arrived in Estonia in mid-April 1560 , he also acquired the diocese of Tallinn (Reval) from Bishop Moritz von Wrangel on June 29, 1560 .

With the Treaty of Altmark in 1629, all of Livonia went to Sweden . For Estonia, this conquest by Protestant Sweden meant the complete replacement of the previous Catholic church system. The restructuring was particularly favored by the fact that the Catholic rulers (dioceses and orders) no longer existed, the German upper class , who viewed Poland as a foreign power, were on the side of the Swedish and Danish kings, and the larger cities had already accepted the Reformation and there is no local, d. H. Estonian clergy existed. The expulsion of the Catholics from Tartu (Dorpat) in 1626 meant the end of the last Catholic structures in Estonia.

For the next nearly 150 years, from 1626 to 1774, no Catholicism is documented in Estonia. However, it can be assumed that after the reorganization of state church policy under Tsar Peter I , Estonia belonged to the Russian Empire since 1710 after the Great Northern War , there was again Catholic life. A large number of Catholics served in the Russian army and state apparatus, and Catholic craftsmen and merchants also moved into the cities, the total number of which was estimated at 1,500 in 1770. There have been secret services in private homes since 1722. It is known for certain that a Capuchin priest resided in Tallinn (Reval) from 1774 to 1779 , who cared for the whole country.

It was not until the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mahiljou was founded in 1783 that the Estonian region was given a canonical structure again, when it was incorporated into the Riga Deanery in 1785 . On January 18, 1786, an official Catholic worship service took place again for the first time, the number of Catholics at this time is given as 284. On April 10, 1798, the commandant of the Reval garrison turned to the city authorities and asked for a church and a priest for his approximately one thousand Polish soldiers. In this context, resident Catholic clergy are documented for the first time, after Polish Dominicans were commissioned with pastoral care throughout Estonia in 1799 .

St. Peter and Paul, Tallinn

However, it was not until almost half a century later, on December 26, 1845, that a Catholic church was consecrated again in Tallinn with the parish church of St. Peter and Paul , which today is the bishop's church of the Apostolic Administrator for Estonia. The Catholics in Narva (Narwa) were looked after from Jamburg from 1835 , but had no church of their own. It was only inaugurated in 1907 and was the largest Catholic church in Estonia until it was destroyed in 1943. The parish in Tartu (Dorpat) was built in 1848, from 1849 to 1893, she was cared for by priests at the local university taught as lecturers. There has been a church in Tartu (Dorpat) since 1899. The Catholics in Valga (Walk) belonged to the parish in Tartu (Dorpat) until 1915, although they had had their own church since 1908.

After the end of the First World War these four parishes remained, which still belonged to the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mahiljou. At that time there were about 5,000 Catholics in Estonia (Tallinn: 2,333, Tartu: 1,073, Narva: approx. 600, Valga: approx. 800).

The independence of Estonia (February 24, 1918) also required a restructuring of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In a first step in 1918, the Catholic parishes in Estonia were separated from the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mahiljou and incorporated into the Latvian Diocese of Riga . In the more recent church history it is considered unique that the ecclesiastical territory of an independent state legally belonged to that of another state. After the later Archbishop Antonino Zecchini , initially Apostolic Visitator , from 1922 Apostolic Delegate for Estonia, was entrusted with the reorganization of the Catholic Church in Estonia in 1921, the Apostolic Administration for Estonia was finally founded on November 1, 1924 , with Antonino Zecchini became the first apostolic administrator.

Despite the legal equality of the Catholic Church with the other Christian churches and the commitment of the German Jesuits active in Estonia, especially Father Henri Werling SJ, who published Säravad Tähed (Shining Stars) for the first time on February 13, 1928, a Catholic magazine , one can only speak of an “administrative pastoral care” for the period up to 1930, after a sufficient number of priests for the ecclesiastical was not successful, also in view of the expansion of the country, the large number of stations and the multilingualism of the Catholics To get work in Estonia.

Eduard Profittlich

The situation changed fundamentally at the end of 1930 when Father Eduard Profittlich SJ came to Estonia. He realized very quickly that the work there could only be successful by bringing the Estonian population closer to the Catholic Church. After Eduard Profittlich was appointed the new Apostolic Administrator a short time later on May 13, 1931, he began a fundamental reorganization.

After years of fruitful work in Estonia, as a result of the so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact in September 1939, the work of the Catholic Church and its Supreme Shepherd, who had meanwhile been appointed titular archbishop and ordained bishop, was severely restricted, with Estonia being annexed by force the Soviet Union were finally made the Soviet laws on religion claimed on 17 June 1940 and enforced with administrative sanctions. The Catholic Church also suffered badly from the Soviet repression , including Archbishop Eduard Profittlich who died on February 22, 1942 in Soviet captivity.

Although the Soviet government repeatedly advocated freedom of religion , religious persecution soon began again after the end of World War II, with spying, house searches and arrests. It was also Father Henri Werling, since the arrest of Eduard Profittlich Apostolic Administrator ad interim , deported. Although it was possible to look after at least two parishes in Estonia again, the communist government did everything to bring the situation in Estonia into line with the rest of the Soviet Union. The church's greatest difficulty was that the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state was continually disregarded and violated by the Soviet central government, which meant a complete loss of church autonomy. As a result, religious instruction in schools was banned, Catholic organizations were not given any founding or assembly permits, and Catholic literature was not allowed to be printed. Preparing children for first communion was forbidden, as was any active participation by children and young people in church services, and a large part of the church's property was confiscated. Under these conditions, the Catholic Church in Estonia developed again into a “national church” of Poles and Lithuanians; there were maybe five to ten Catholic Estonians left, so that you were back to the 1918 level.

Philippe Jourdan, Apostolic Administrator since 2005

After long years of occupation , in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, Estonia began to strive for autonomy in 1988. The only Catholic priest in Estonia at that time was Rein Õunapuu , who had been solely responsible for Estonian Catholics since 1987. Not least by taking advantage of intensive contacts with Paul Verschuren , the Bishop of Helsinki , through whom he also maintained the connection with the Holy See , he succeeded with great commitment in dealing with the situation of the small church in Estonia in the difficult phase of upheaval through numerous baptisms (approx. 200) and conversions (approx. 150) to stabilize and to continue to establish despite the changing living conditions of the people. In 1991, Rein Õunapuu, an Estonian clergyman, took part for the first time in a European Synod of Bishops , where his lecture on the situation of the Catholic Church in Estonia not only attracted a lot of attention, but also led to the Vatican for the first time having very specific ideas about the judicial reorganization of the Baltic States , Russia and the successor states of the Soviet Union.

After the Holy See never recognized the illegal annexation of Estonia and consistently designated the Apostolic Administration there for fifty years as sedisvacantia rerum politicarum causa (see also below), Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Justo Mullor García resumed on April 15, 1992 appoint an Apostolic Administrator for Estonia. His successor was Archbishop Erwin Josef Ender on August 9, 1997 , who was finally replaced by Archbishop Peter Zurbriggen on November 15, 2001 . All three named Apostolic Administrators also represented the Pope as Apostolic Nuncio in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (based in Vilnius ). Only since March 23, 2005, Estonia has had a resident shepherd again in Philippe Jean-Charles Jourdan . Apostolic Nuncio in Latvia has been Archbishop Petar Rajič since August 2019 .

present

In the last census in Estonia in 2003, 5,757 people professed Catholicism, and in the Pontifical Yearbook Annuario Pontificio their number is also given as 6,000. Among these, the Estonians were the largest ethnic group (1,736 people = 30%). It was followed by the Poles (876), the Lithuanians (749), the Russians (714), the Ukrainians (301) and the Latvians (182). A total of 0.5% of the population belong to the Catholic Church, so that one can speak of a pronounced diaspora .

At present (2009) there are seven Catholic parishes in Estonia (Tallinn, Tartu, Pärnu, Valga, Athme, Narva and Sillamäe), plus one parish of the Greek Catholic Rite (Tallinn). 11 priests work under Bishop Philippe Jean-Charles Jourdan , including two religious priests and a member of the personal prelature of Opus Dei . The male religious branches are Franciscans (one religious priest) and Dominicans (one religious priest), the female religious branches are the Missionaries of Charity , Mother Theresa Sisters (four sisters), Birgittian Sisters (eight sisters), Franciscans (seven sisters from two congregations ) and a sister of Order of the Precious Blood represented.

The ecumenical climate is extremely friendly. In 1989 the Catholic Church was one of the founders of the Council of Christian Churches in Estonia.

literature

  • Markus Nowak: Catholic in the Baltic States. Estonia and Latvia. Rebirth of a church . Bonifatiuswerk, Paderborn / Renovabis, Freising 2012; on the Catholic Church in Estonia pp. 14–19.

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