News / Events

July 23, 2022

Archpriest Dr Lawrence Cross, Deputed Representative of the Russian Greek Catholic Church Communities Abroad, visits the Collegium Orientale.

In the days between 30 June – 6 July, Archpriest Dr Lawrence Cross came to Collegium Orientale for his first visit. Father Archpriest Lawrence Cross was previously Associate-Professor at the Australian Catholic University and serves as Priest-In-Charge at Holy Trinity St Nicholas Russian Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia. He is also deputed representative of the Russian Greek Catholic Communities abroad.

For the most part, the communities of the Slavic Synodal tradition of the Russian Catholic Church are currently scattered across all continents of the world. They all have their origin in the founding of the Apostolic Exarchate of Russia: in 1917 in Saint Petersburg under the leadership of the Venerable Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky, Archbishop of Lviv and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, together with Blessed Leontiy (Leonid) Feodorov, religious priest of the Studite Order, the founding Synod of this Exarchate took place. At this Synod the main constitutional provisions concerning the canonical and liturgical status of the new Russian Greek Catholic Church were determined. Pope Benedict XV approved the decisions of the Synod and appointed Leontiy (Leonid) Feodorov as Archpriest and competent Exarch of this new Catholic Church sui iuris. Due to the persecution of the communist regime in Russia, many believers and clerics had to leave the country or were exiled to camps or killed. Since that time, the Russian apostolate of this church developed abroad. After the fall of the Soviet Union, priests and faithful within Russia organised themselves for the rebirth of this Church in their homeland. Today there are communities both in Russia and abroad. A good example is the Russian Byzantine Catholic Community in Munich, led by the former spiritual director of the Collegium Orientale, Father Martirij Bagin. Unfortunately, there is a lack of uniform ecclesiastical structures in the sense of an exarchate, although Father Archpriest Lawrence Cross is endeavouring to seek solutions in unity and contact with the Dicastery for the Eastern Catholic Churches.
       
On the one hand, the visit of Father Lawrence Cross was a good opportunity to get to know the Diocese of Eichstätt, including a meeting with the Most Reverend Bishop Georg Maria Hanke OSB, as well as the possibility to learn more about the basic idea of the Collegium Orientale and to establish contacts with our house. On the other hand, the visit was an important spiritual support for our collegiate Subdeacon Hermann Stumpf, who also belongs to the Russian apostolate and is currently in his theological formation at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt as well as the priestly formation at the Collegium Orientale.

During the meetings with the leadership and the community of the Collegium Orientale, there were good opportunities to get to know each other better in a fraternal atmosphere as well as to discuss important issues affecting the Church today, especially in Germany and in the world. An important wish of Father Lawrence Cross was also to give a good witness of the Greek Catholic Church of the Russian tradition, as well as to assure his spiritual support and solidarity to our Ukrainian Greek Catholic brothers and sisters, as well as to those from the non-Catholic churches in these terrible times of war in Ukraine.