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Country name:
Russian Federation
Location: Northern Asia (that part west of the Urals is sometimes
included with Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between
Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
Climate:
ranges from steppes in the south through humid
continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to
tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along
Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in
the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
Population:
146,001,176 (July 2000 est.)
Ethnic groups:
Russian 81.5%, Tatar 3.8%, Ukrainian 3%,
Chuvash 1.2%, Bashkir 0.9%, Byelorussian 0.8%, Moldavian
0.7%, other 8.1%
Nationality:
Nigerian
Religions:
Russian Orthodox, Muslim, Christians, other
Languages: Russian, other
Literacy definition:
age 15 and over can read and write
total population:98%
male:100% female: 97% (1989 est.)
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Mar-16-02, 11:14 PM (EST)
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Russia is calling for your help
by Maria Galbiani
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A missionary and humanitarian project of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Russia needs your support in order to be established.The adventure of the Immaculate in Russia had its beginnings in September 1997 when several Franciscans of the Immaculate traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg in order to study the language and offer their service to a pediatric hospital that was about to open its doors to the public.
The project at the hospital was cancelled due to the grave complications and disorder of post-communist Russia, but it didn't affect the realization of the presence of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in that suffering and very much transformed land, that carries now the bloody wounds of communism and atheism, leaving the population in a sorry moral and material condition.
The doors were opened at Togliattigrad, a city 1,200 miles from Moscow and which is sadly named after the secretary of the Italian communist party Palmiro Togliatti, who was supposedly a benefactor to Russia in the year of his residency in the city. It is interesting to note that although an Italian contributed the success of communism in this city, an Italian mission intends to recover everything that communism has robbed and destroyed, above all the faith. The city of Togliattigrad has approximately 800,000 inhabitants: not even one church, priest or religious; the only religious presence being the orthodox with their two churches under construction. The people live in the darkest of miseries, completely devoid of adequate moral values and material security. The vice of alcoholism claims 70% of the population while suicide remains an alluring solution to their daily struggles. Remembering the title of the famous opera by Gogol, we could say that Russia is a "Dead Soul", a sad soul, a cold soul, incapable of smiling, a soul that carries the pains and the signs of 70 years of communism, separated from God, hope and happiness. It is in this context of suffering and misery that the Franciscans of the Immaculate have been operating: in fact, after many trails and sufferings, The Marian Houses of "Our Lady of Fátima"(friars) and the "Immaculate Heart of Mary"(sisters), have been established and opened their doors to the city of Togliatti. The friars and the sisters shared a limited space of three rooms and one bathroom while lacking the basic goods. The operation began in the parish of Our Lady of Fátima, which is comprised of a hundred Catholics, mostly Polish and German. The Divine Office is recited in a very small chapel (40" X 20") dedicated also to Our Lady of Fatima, all blue, very beautiful, but also too small for the people who so need God!
When the founder of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, visited the Russian Mission, he was astonished by the miseries of the peoples and their many needs: particularly of the confused souls who are "without faith and sanctifying grace, reduced to animals in pants and skirts, driven to the abyss of nothingness…where the dominion and rule belongs to Satan " (The Franciscans of the Immaculate in the Saintly Russia, Castelpetroso 2000, p.51). One cannot remain indifferent and merely stand with crossed arms. What can we do…How can we do it? The inspiration came from the Immaculate Heart of Mary. There are many projects in mind: the erection of a radio station which will transmit 24 hrs. a day, entering all of the houses in Togliattigrad; the establishing of a religious bookstore and introducing the Russian "Casa Mariana Editrice", the composition and diffusion of a Russian catechism and religious formation magazine, but above all the construction of a bigger church and two convents where we could receive more friars and sisters and eventually Russian vocations to help us quickly realize all of the apostolic projects. The construction of a church and two convents is providentially in a state of execution. The cost is approximately three million dollars, an amount of money that could cause anybody to lose hope, but not to those who put all their hope in the Immaculate and whose only richness is poverty. As St. Maximilian M. Kolbe used to say, "the bottomless box of divine Providence". Divine Providence will supply for this miracle and it will come through your heart and your hands. We need your support!
Be generous! Offer your small or large contribution to help a population who has suffered and continues to suffer. The people of Russia need you…they are calling you! Ave Maria!
This article is a translation from the Italian "La Russia chiama te" published in the Italian magazine Eco L'Addolorata edited by the Franciscans of the Immaculate in Castelpetroso, Italy.
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