Realizacja dobra wspólnego w działalności księży werbistów na Wschodniej Syberii i Dalekim Wschodzie
Implementation of the common good in the activities of the Divine Word Missionaries in the Eastern Siberia

Summary/Abstract: The proposed topic: Implementation of the common good in the activities of the Divine Word Missionaries in the Eastern Siberia requires a few comments. Firstly, The Eastern Siberia and the Far East – in the article is understood as the eastern part of Russia – from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the east, and from the north - from the Arctic Ocean to the borders with Mongolia and China in the south . The Eastern Siberia joins the Russian Far East – that is, countries and districts situated in the far east. The whole territory coincides with the Diocese of St. Joseph. Secondly, the common good. The common good is primarily the development and improvement of man in his personal life. The common good is, as written Fr. M. A. Krąpiec, real good of a man existing in the form of specific perfection of human persons. The good is a goal and principle of social order, it allows the improvement of a specific human person without harm to others and for the benefit of all. Thirdly, Divine Word Missionaries. It is a missionary congregation, founded in 1875 in Steylu, in what is now the Netherlands, by St. Arnold Janssen. Divine Word Missionaries began their work in Belarus, and after the ordination of Fr. Jerzy Mazur SVD (31 May 1989) as bishop, they started to work in Irkutsk and Blagoveshchensk on the Russian-Chinese border, and most recently in Chita beyond Baikal. The origins of the presence of the Divine Word Missionaries are associated with the activities of Bishop Jerzy Mazur SVD, and Fr. Joseph Węcławik SVD in Irkutsk. From the very beginning, implementation of common good in the activities of the Divine Word Missionaries was associated with the creation of structures of the local Catholic Church (which, despite the difficult times, continue to operate today) and the renewal of both the community of the Church (invisible common good), and its visible common good – churches, chapels and all forms of activity. The purpose of this activity is to multiply the common good so that man could reach his perfection as a Christian. Expulsion of bishop Jerzy Mazur SVD by the Russian authorities and the return of Fr. Joseph Węcławik SVD to Poland ended the first period of the Divine Word Missionaries’ activity. The second period lasts to this very day and the Divine Word Missionaries have been very active in three places: in Irkutsk, Blagoveshchensk, and the Chita. They cooperate with other congregations and diocesan priests in realizing the common good – the Church, which will be able to take all challenges of the contemporary world. Multiplication of the common good is associated with a courageous acceptance of the difficult tasks linked with the currents of thought, technologizing, consumerism, postmodernism, nihilism and practical atheism, life ,,as if God has not existed”. Modern civilization, in which the Church also lives in Eastern Siberia, the technological civilization promotes development of consumer mentality, indifference in matters of religion, which Max Thürkauf described as “technomania” or disease of practical materialism, on which grows secularization of life, disregard for sin and its consequences involving the whole of human life. These alarming symptoms of modern life foster religious indifference and lead to practical atheism, in a society already indoctrinated by atheistic ideology for decades. In response, evangelization of the world is needed requiring authenticity and thrilling power of Christian love and the vision of the kingdom of Christ. It has to do with pastoral ministry and with the laity apostolate inscribed in the charism of the Congregation, which aims at uniting the world with Christ and, in Him, people among themselves, that is ,,unum in Christo”. In other words - authenticity and fullness of Christianity: sanctification and evangelization of the temporal order, which is a great common good. The task of the Divine Word Missionaries is a great challenge, calling for deepening and activating the Christian religiosity and building the Christian Community so that in the community the Church is embodied and the common good is built in most Christian dimensions. There is no escape before that. Then the Church of St. Joseph will be the power of love growing from a living faith, and will be able to resist the pressure of moral evil and spiritual death of the world. According to the charism of the Congregation of the Divine Word Missionaries, proclamation the Word of God it is a priority of the Congregation, but it also connects with the cooperation of the laity, which in the conditions of Siberia is a prerequisite to achieving the common good, namely, the rebuilding of the Church after decades of collapse during the communist regime. In the activities of the Divine Word Missionaries very important is cooperation with the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, the congregation also founded by St. Arnold Janssen. This cooperation has an optimistic perspective in the formation of children and youth - the future of the Catholic Church. Taking spiritual and medical care of lonely people, the sick and the marginalized means becoming a witness of authentic proclamation of the Gospel. Irkutsk and Blagoveshchensk – as university towns also offer the opportunity to work with groups of students, because many young people are looking for their identity, the meaning of life and their way to God, even though the world around us brings many illusory proposals. Both the SSpS sisters and the Divine Word Missionaries are also involved in helping people addicted to alcohol or drugs, in organizing scientific workshops that involve local experts, as well as those from abroad. To set the man free - the great common good united with the spirit of the Gospel. Involvement of the Divine Word Missionaries in formation of the common good - the community of the Church in Eastern Siberia, is not only the work of the Polish SVD Province, because there also work Divine Word Missionaries from Indonesia, Slovakia and India. International communities are a good image of the universal Church, which is not enclosed in just one culture and nationality.

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