Text by Oleg-Michael Martynov; photos by Olga Zhuravleva
The Most Reverend Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana (Kazakhstan), was in St. Petersburg, Russia, on November 22 and 23, 2019. His Excellency spoke live on Radio Maria, covering both the situation of the Catholics in Kazakhstan and the recent events worldwide. On November 23, the feast of St. Clement of Rome, who is the patron saint of Una Voce Russia, he celebrated a Pontifical High Mass in the church of Our Lady of Lourdes. With Moscow boasting the only Traditional Latin Mass in Russia celebrated every Sunday (either a Sung Mass or a Low Mass) and St. Petersburg still struggling, with varied success, to have at least one TLM in a month, a High Mass – especially a Pontifical one, celebrated by a bishop – is a very rare event in this country. The previous Pontifical High Mass, also arranged by Una Voce Russia and celebrated by Bishop Schneider, took place in Moscow in 2011.
The assisting clergy in St. Petersburg included Fr. Vincent Ribeton, FSSP, rector of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter’s International Seminary in Wigratzbad, who was the presbyter assistens; Fr. Andrei Keulich of the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mogilev, who was the deacon; and two FSSP seminarians, Alexander Mayer and Josef Unglert, who assumed the roles of subdeacon and master of ceremonies, and also trained taught the altar boys, who were mostly first-timers. The singing was excellent, some parts being performed by the local Gregorian choir and others by a mixed Gregorian/polyphonic choir from Moscow conducted by Mr. Kirill Kudashkin, a member of Una Voce Russia.
After the Mass, Bishop Schneider took part in the book launch for the first-ever complete Russian translation of the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent. This book, of great importance for Russian-speaking Catholics and scholars, was financed by crowdfunding, prepared by Una Voce Russia, and published by the St. Petersburg–based interdiocesan Catholic seminary Mary Queen of Apostles and the new publishing house Tropa. (Tropa, which is Russian for “Trailway,” was founded by a group of orthodox Catholics, including some members of Una Voce Russia, with the goal of publishing traditional Catholic books as well as good titles from the field of humanities and social sciences, because many important editions are unavailable in Russian, like the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent until recently.) The translators, Eugene Rosenblum and Ilya Anikyev (both members of Una Voce Russia), were also present, as well as prominent clergymen and academics. Bishop Schneider, who is fluent in Russian, delivered a speech on the importance and indispensability of the documents of Trent during the modern crisis in the Church. He was followed by other speakers, including Fr. Jose M. Vegas, CMF, the seminary’s science and education prefect, who emphasized the correct interpretation of the Second Vatican Council in line with the entire preceding Magisterium, including, of course, the teachings of Trent.
Bishop Schneider’s visit and the Pontifical Mass and other events were made possible thanks to substantial financial support offered by the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales and Una Voce Canada, both of which are prominent members of the International Federation Una Voce (FIUV).
The full videos of Bishop Schneider’s radio talk (in Russian) and the Pontifical High Mass can be seen below, or on YouTube at https://youtu.be/4BcFYi_kCkI (talk) and https://youtu.be/-FntMSwxUOc (Mass). A photo gallery can be found at https://cloud.mail.ru/public/3Gjo/2eFNmGJPv.
