(EDITOR’S NOTE: Father Patrick McCormick, a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta is presently on the staff of the North American College in Rome. At Easter time he traveled to Russia with Bishop Hickey, the rector of the college. Here are his observations on religion in Russia.)

We flew from Rome to Leningrad on Easter Monday, and spent two full days there.

We then took the train to Moscow, where we stayed for four days. I greatly enjoyed seeing the old capital in Leningrad with all the remains of the czarist’s rule; it was quite an imperial city.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral really fascinated us; it was beautiful inside. The Hermitage certainly one had of the finest art collections I have ever seen, and very well kept and displayed.

Moscow, I vest, was the more interesting, as it is more contemporary.

We visited the Kremlin and Red Square, and the usual sites. It was rather strange to see the prominence of the Orthodox churches in the Kremlin and Red Square, even though they are now museums.

I was quite impressed with the depth of the Orthodox Christianity in Russian culture, a culture much more Christian than what we seem to have historically in the States.

We also visited the Metropolitan and seminary in Leningrad. The Metropolitan had the liturgy, and then received us afterwards; he lives at the seminary. It was a very interesting meeting though he said little or nothing about the situation in Russia today.

In Moscow we met with an Orthodox bishop who is in charge of their ecumenical affairs, then the following day we met with the Patriarch of Russia. Both of those meetings were very interesting.

Of course the Orthodox Church has decided to make the best of the situation in Russia, so it would seem. The bishop who met us in response to one of our questions, said that is was not permitted to catechesize children in Russia. The only catechism that can be taught has to be done from the pulpit, or from their families.

The interpreter mentioned that a great ministry of catechesis is presently being done by old people, grandparents who teach the prayers and generally have kept the faith alive in Russia.

My impression would be that the Communists are less threatened by the Church the longer they are in power, and the more stable their position becomes in Russia; of course, they keep a tight watch on the Church and certainly have no intentions of permitting it to be a competing power. It is an interesting situation; my impression is that the religion is surviving. The Patriarch arranged for us to visit the Orthodox monastery at Zagorsk, about fifty miles outside Moscow. We were there on a Sunday morning, and attended the public Masses.

There were well over a thousand people at the Mass, probably half of them old women, but it was very interesting to see the composition of the other half. There was a surprising number of young people in their twenties and thirties, even several soldiers in uniform with their families there.

We visited the seminary where they have a magnificent icon display. The Orthodox who we met really treated us extremely well; I think they were quite pleased at our interest in them and their situation.