Orenburg state university

On the formation and development of Catholicism in the Orenburg region

The OSU Research Institute of the History and Ethnography of the Southern Urals on the request of the Orenburg parish of Our Lady of Loreto Roman Catholic Church held the International Round Table “Catholics as a historical part of Orenburg region community”, dedicated to the 170^th anniversary of the consecration of the Catholic Cathedral.

Priests from Poland, Belarus and Russia participated in the Round Table discussion.

In his introductory speech, Venaliy Amelin, director of the OSU Research Institute of the History and Ethnography of the Southern Urals traced the history of interrelations between Western Christianity, in particular of Catholicism , and Orthodoxy. He described the role of prominent catholics who made a great contribution to all life spheres of the Russian state.

OSU postgraduate student Sergei Chetverikov’s report on the exiled Catholic clergymen in the Orenburg province sparked a particular interest. Denis Denisov, senior researcher at the OSU Research Institute of the History and Ethnography of the Southern Urals highlighted the milestones of the Catholic community development in the Orenburg region.