By Fr. Lucas Chuffart, A.A. Moscow, December 2, 2012
During the 2011-2012 year, I was able to send some news from our communities in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Israel where I spend a part of the sabbatical year I had been granted. It all began right where the Congregation did here in 1862, that is to say, Istanbul.
Making full circle, so to speak, of the Near Eastern Mission, here I am in Moscow, the northernmost city of the Mission. I was only able to get here on November 22 since the visa paperwork which I officially began in August met with frustrating delays, perhaps because I was asking for a resident’s visa in view of religious activity at our parish, St. Louis des Français. Others much less patient than I have also become discouraged with this process. On the advice of Fr. Slava Gorokhov, I had begun preparing all my documents in June, but only received my visa on November 15.
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