The Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of the Russian Federation visited the Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development for their Ad Limina Apostolorum visit, last January.
The delegation was composed of Msgr. Paolo Pezzi, Archbishop of the Mother of God in Moscow; Msgr. Joseph Werth, Bishop of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk, Ordinary for the Byzantine Rite faithful residing in Russia; Msgr. Cyryl Klimowicz, Bishop of St. Joseph in Irkutsk and Apostolic Administrator of Yuzhno - Sakhalinks, and Msgr. Clemens Pickel, Bishop of San Clemente in Saratov and President of the Episcopal Conference.
Currently in Russia Catholics represent 0.34% of the population, about 350,000 faithful according to the Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2014. The Russian Church counts one archdiocese, three suffragan dioceses (Diocese of Saint Clement at Saratov, Diocese of Saint Joseph at Irkutsk, Diocese of the Transfiguration at Novosibirsk), an Apostolic Prefecture (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk) and two Apostolic Exarchates (Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Krym, Archiepiscopal Exarchate of Russia for the Catholics of Byzantine rite).
In the meeting held at the Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development, the Bishops of the Russian Bishops' Conference spoke, among other things, about the commitment of the local Church in favor of ecumenical dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church, with which efforts and initiatives are shared on various fronts: from the defense of the family and life to collaboration in humanitarian assistance to populations suffering from conflicts in the Middle East, from efforts to bring reconciliation in the conflict in Ukraine to academic relations.
The Bishops then spoke about the need to recover the missionary impulse of the Church of Russia and adapt it to the evolution of society and its languages, the social and charitable commitment of the Catholic Church in Russia and the painful and ever-current issue of persecution of Christians.
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In this interview, the Archbishop of Moscow, H.E. Msgr. Paolo Pezzi, mentions collaboration in the ecumenical field and with government institutions to promote the implementation of integral human development in Russian society.