A gift from Rome: Tallinn becomes a diocese

First gifts are usually small tokens of appreciation designed to make a good impression. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, papal ambassador for the Baltic states since June, brought a very special gift with him to Estonia when he travelled to Tallinn for the first time at the end of last week. During a prayer with priests, nuns and Catholic employees, he read out a document that was also published in the Vatican at the same time: Tallinn will be elevated to a bishop's see and the Apostolic Administration in Estonia will thus become a diocese.

"We waited a long time for this, and suddenly it happened. Now we are a diocese," says Marge Paas, press spokesperson for the new diocese. "It is a historic event, even an act of God's grace that we have received."

Fitting for the 100th birthday

The Catholic community in Estonia has been waiting for this moment for almost a century. In 1924, the Apostolic Administration, a kind of precursor to a diocese, was founded by Pope Pius XI; in November, the 100th anniversary was to be celebrated with a symposium in Tallinn. This will now have to be renamed without further ado, says Paas. "It felt as if the nuncio had presented us with a special gift - a gift for the 100th birthday of our church."

Philippe Jean-Charles Jourdan will become Bishop of Tallinn. The French-born clergyman has lived in Estonia since 1996 and has led the Estonian church as titular bishop and apostolic administrator since 2005. The Catholic community has around 6,000 members, with most Catholics living in the capital Tallinn, where, in addition to the Church of St Peter and St Paul, which is now the cathedral of the diocese, there has also been a monastery of the Order of St Brigid in the Pirita district since 2000. The Redemptoris Mater seminary of the Neocatechumenal Way, a charismatic movement within the Catholic Church, was founded seven years ago.

Small places of worship for Sunday services

The second large city with a significant Catholic community is Tartu in southern Estonia, also known as Dorpat, where there is also a Catholic grammar school. In addition, there are so-called mission centres, i.e. smaller churches and places of worship, particularly in the east of Estonia, which are only visited by priests, most of whom come from Poland, for services on Sundays. Including Tallinn and Tartu, there are eight parishes across the country. Those in the east of the country are Russian-speaking and over-aged.

Against this backdrop, the "diocese upgrade" is an encouragement: "We see this as a call to continue our work even more intensively, to build new structures, especially in areas where there are still no regular church services," says Tomasz Materna. The priest of Polish origin is a cathedral priest in Tallinn and sees the Pope's decision as "an important sign for us priests, a confirmation of our work and our commitment." A total of 13 priests are involved in Estonia, five of whom are from Poland, while others come from Italy and Spain. They meet once a month for a day together. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, as the new nuncio, also wanted to take part in one of these meetings - albeit without accreditation from the Estonian president - when he announced the appointment of the diocese.

"It is a very promising time for us," says diocese spokeswoman Paas, referring not only to the many changes that an appointment as a diocese entails. As a so-called diocesan postulator, she has compiled documents on the beatification process of Eduard Profittlich in recent years. Profittlich was a German Jesuit and worked as an apostolic administrator in Estonia during the interwar period. He was sentenced to death in Soviet prison in 1942 and is considered a martyr. "We hope for his beatification. God willing, very soon," said Jourdan recently. There has been speculation about a beatification in the course of the 100th anniversary of the Apostolic Administration. Now he is to become the patron saint of the new diocese, Paas announced. But the beatification is still missing.