Magadan. Hopeless, starved faces
staring through barbed wire, windswept tundra, and
frozen mass graves fill the imagination of Russians
when they hear this citys name. Magadan is
Russias Auschwitz. It was the administrative
center of Stalins Kolyma arctic death camps
where some two million people perished from exposure,
starvation, and execution between 1932 and 1954. Many
were imprisoned for their religious beliefs or
ethnicity. Arrested and deported from places like
western Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia, the few
Catholics who survived and live today in Magadan bear
witness to a profound and heroic faith. For decades
they prayed for the chance to live their faith
openly. In 1990 their prayers were answered.
The Berlin Wall had fallen the year before.
Archbishop Francis Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska and
one of his priests, Father Michael Shields, flew to
Magadan, rented a theater, and celebrated the
citys first ever public Mass. Two hundred and
seventy people attended. This event planted the seeds
of what is now a fourteen-year old parish,
The Nativity of Jesus, where Fr.
Michael has served as pastor since 1994. Until
recently, Fr. Michael and his associate pastor, Fr.
David Means, lived and celebrated Mass in a renovated
apartment. The parish soon outgrew the small space.
Since 2001, with the help of Aid the Church in
Central and Eastern Europe and other benefactors,
they are building a new church, a Mercy Center to
serve the poor, and a chapel to commemorate the
millions who died. They held their first Mass in the
new church on Christmas, 2002.
We are building a new church in the
hope of helping people find God and find happiness in
Gods love, said Father Shields.
Bratislava, a Lithuanian Catholic woman, is
one of the camp survivors who come to the new church
every day. Arrested for her faith, she persevered in
cruel labor camp conditions by praying a daily
rosarya rosary she made in secret from
sawdust and bread she set aside from her meager daily
ration. Today she is able to attend Mass openly and
pray the rosary and has become a living symbol of
hope and faithfulness for the entire community.
Construction of the Mercy Center, which will
include a soup kitchen and clothing room, is still
underway, but Fr. Michael has served the poor in
Magadan from the beginning. He is well-known for his
spontaneous and generous spirit. The parish center
constantly bustles with activity as workers and
volunteers distribute food and clothing. One day, the
cleaning woman of the parish came out of the
ladies room just in time to see Fr. Michael
giving away her shawl to a poor woman at the door.
Fr. Michael, she yelled,
Thats my shawl! He shrugged,
gave it back, and found another in the donations
pile. You see, she remarked with a
wink, You have to keep your eye on him. That
is why I have all the office supplies labeled:
Fr. Michael, dont
touch!
But serving the Catholics and poor in Magadan
is not a one-man show. Fr. David, Luba the parish
director, the local Caritas staff, dedicated laymen
and women, and generous benefactors all make it
possible. With Gods help they are building a
community of hope, a church for those who have never
known the light and love of God.