A couple of newly announced episcopal appointments suggest possible movement in Vatican-Russian relations.
Bishop Jerzy Mazur, SVD, has been named bishop of the city of Elk in Poland. Since 1998 he served as bishop in Irkutsk in Siberia, but after the Pope formally established Bp. Mazur’s territory as a diocese in 2002, Russian authorities revoked his visa and have impeded him from returning there.
Bishop Cyryl Klimowicz, now an auxiliary in Minsk (Belarus), has been named to succeed Bp. Mazur. Is this Rome’s way of finessing the conflict?