The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Kazakhstan was the episcopal conference of Kazakhstan, that operated from 2003 until 2022. It consisted of Archdiocese, two dioceses, and apostolic administration. [1] [2]
On 7 July 1999, Pope John Paul II establishes a new administrative division of the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Thus, a diocese was formed in Karaganda, which was directly subordinate to the Vatican, and three Apostolic Administrations in Astana, Almaty, and Atyrau. On 17 May 2003, the Apostolic Administration in Astana was elevated to the Archdiocese and the Apostolic Administration in Almaty was elevated to the rank of a diocese. [3] The Conference of Catholic Bishops of the Republic of Kazakhstan was established in 2003. The plenary sessions of the Conference are held twice a year. One of the bishops is elected chairman of the conference for a three-year term, who can hold this office for no more than two consecutive terms.
On 8 September 2021 was established the new governing body – the Bishops' Conference of Central Asia by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and this Conference become as a part of this new creation. [4] It ceased to operate in April 2022, when the new Conference began to work. [5]
Chairman of the KCEC: Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra
Secretary General: Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Archbishop Tomasz Peta
Bishop Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra
Bishop Adelio Del Oro
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Priest Peter Sakmar [6]
Press Secretary: Fr. Petr Pytlovani
Archdiocese of St. Mary in Astana
Diocese of the Holy Trinity in Almaty
Atyrau Apostolic Administration
An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese, or is a diocese, eparchy or similar permanent ordinariate that either has no bishop or, in very rare cases, has an incapacitated bishop.
The Catholic Church in Kazakhstan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome.
The Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana is a Latin archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Kazakhstan.
The Catholic Diocese of Most Holy Trinity in Almaty is a diocese located in the city of Almaty in the Ecclesiastical province of Mary Most Holy in Astana in Kazakhstan.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Machala is a diocese located in the city of Machala in the Ecclesiastical province of Cuenca in Ecuador. Established on July 26, 1954 as the Territorial Prelature of El Oro from territory of the Dioceses of Guayaquil and Cuenca, it was elevated as the Diocese of Machala on January 31, 1969.
Athanasius Schneider, ORC is a Catholic prelate, serving as the Auxiliary Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. He is known for championing the pre-Vatican II liturgical traditions and practices of the Church and for protesting certain current policies, including some associated with Pope Francis.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Karaganda is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church, suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan of Mary Most Holy in Astana, yet remains subject to the missionary Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Tomasz Bernard Peta is the current Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Mary in the city of Astana, and the President of the Bishops' Conference of Kazakhstan from May 19, 2003. He speaks the Polish, Russian and Kazakh languages and is citizen of Kazakhstan.
José Luis Mumbiela Sierra is a Spanish-born Roman Catholic prelate and Bishop of the Holy Trinity Diocese in Almaty.
Jan Paweł Lenga is a Roman Catholic bishop who is the former Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Karaganda.
Janusz Wiesław Kaleta was a Catholic bishop who was laicized in 2016.
The Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools(NIS) is a network of schools for exceptional students of age 11 to 18 throughout Kazakhstan. The schools are named after Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev, former president of Kazakhstan, who has promoted the idea as a means of developing the intellectual life of the country. Previously, each school focused primarily on a specific set of subjects: either physical sciences and mathematics, or chemical and biological sciences, as well as foreign languages. Although this division is still represented in the names of schools, most schools share the same curriculum based on Cambridge O Level and A Level, except for NIS IB in Astana. Instruction is trilingual, in Kazakh, Russian and English, shifting to exclusively English by the junior year.
The Apostolic Administration of Atyrau is a pastoral area sui iuris, not yet fully a diocese, in western Kazakhstan which forms part of the Roman Catholic Church in this country, namely of the metropolitan Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Nur-Sultan.
The Eastern Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan is a metropolitan district or metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although not autonomous or fully self-governing like the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, the Church in Kazakhstan has been given some self-government, with jurisdiction over all Orthodox Christians in Kazakhstan. Most of its members are ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Koreans, and Belarusians resident in Kazakhstan.
Adelio Dell'Oro is the Italian-born Catholic Bishop of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
The Apostolic Administration of Kazakhstan and Central Asia is an Apostolic Administration and is exempt, i.e. directly subject to the Holy See, that extends its jurisdiction over all the Eastern Catholic faithful of the Byzantine Rite who live in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Vasyl Hovera is a Ukrainian-born hierarch for Eastern Catholic Churches of the Byzantine Rite, who serves as an Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Administration of Kazakhstan and Central Asia for Faithful of Byzantine Rite, with a see in Karaganda, for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan since 1 June 2019.
The St. Anthony of Padua Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in the city of Kokshetau, the capital of Akmola Region, in the northern part of Kazakhstan. It is dedicated to the Anthony of Padua and is located at Akan-Sery Street, 7 ; 020000; near Bukpa Hill. The church is built in the neo-Gothic style.
Bishop Yevgeniy Zinkovskiy is a Kazakh Roman Catholic prelate, who currently serves as the Titular Bishop of Maiuca and Auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Karaganda since 29 June 2021.