Estonia and Vatican

Bilateral relations

The Vatican City State (the Holy See) recognised the Republic of Estonia for the first time on 10 October 1921, and re-recognised the Republic of Estonia on 28 August 1991. Diplomatic relations were re-established on 3 October 1991.

In the beginning of the last century, from 1935-1940, the Nuncio of the Vatican (Ambassador) to Estonia was Antonio Arata (presented credentials 4 December 1935), who before presenting his credentials was the chargé d’affaires of the Holy See to Estonia. Estonian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France, Belgium and Spain Otto Strandman was appointed the envoy of Estonia to the Holy See in 1933 (presented credentials to the Pope on 30 September 1933). In December 1939, Estonian President Konstantin Päts appointed Karl Selter, who was also the representative of Estonia to the League of Nations, as envoy to the Holy See.

The Vatican has accredited its Nuncio in Vilnius to Estonia. The first Nuncio to the re-independent Estonia was Justo Mullor Garcia (from 1992 to 1997) followed by Erwin Josef Ender (from 1997 to 2002) and Peter Stephan Zurbriggen (from 2002 to 2009). The current Apostolic Nuncio to Estonia Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi presented his credentials to President of the Republic Toomas Hendrik Ilves on 28 May 2009.

On 10.09.2005, Father Philippe Jourdan, who since 1996 had headed the representation of the Holy See in Tallinn, was consecrated to the episcopate of the Estonian Catholic Church at St. Olaf’s Church.

Upon the re-establishment of independence, Estonia accredited its Ambassador in Bonn to the Holy See. The first Ambassador was Tiit Matsulevitsh (1993-1996); he was followed by Ambassadors Margus Laidre (1997-2000), Indrek Tarand (2001-2002) and Priit Kolbre (2003-2006).The current Ambassador Jüri Seilenthal presented his credentials on 1 June 2007.

Visits

Agreements

On 2 May 1995, the Apostolic Administration of the Roman Catholic Church was entered onto the church register with the Religious Affairs Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Ensuing from the law of Estonian churches and congregations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in co-operation with the Religious Affairs Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared an agreement between the Republic of Estonia and the Holy See on the legal status of the Catholic Church, which came into force via an exchange of notes on 12.03.1999. The agreement sets the legal arrangement between Estonia and the Vatican. In order to resolve some issues that became apparent when the law of churches and congregations went into effect, the Ministry of Internal Affairs developed an amendment to the law, which came into force on 12 February 2011.

Catholics in Estonia

As a result of the Reformation in the middle of the 14th century, the Lutheran Church became influential in Estonia and the Catholic Church almost disappeared. Tallinn’s Catholic congregation was re-established at the end of the 18th century.

During the first period of the Republic of Estonia, the Catholic Church became directly subject to the Pope. In 1936, Bishop Eduard Profittlich was ordained, but at the break out of the war he was arrested and executed in a Kirov prison in Russia. Before World War II, there were 11 Catholic congregations in Estonia and 14 priests.

During the Soviet occupation, all the congregations were closed – only the churches of Tallinn and Tartu remained open. Estonian territories were merged with the diocese of Riga. A new rise began in the 1970s, when many people within Lutheran circles and musicians started to take interest in the Catholic Church. The "renaissance" of Catholicism in Estonia started with the activities of the early music ensemble “Hortus Musicus”, the ordainment of Rein Õunapuu, a priest of Estonian origin, and the visit of the Pope in 1993.

Since the 1990s, several orders have settled anew in Estonia and a number of congregations have been restored. As of January 2007, according to the Estonian Council of Churches, to which membership also the Catholic Apostolic Administration of Estonia of the Roman Catholic Church belongs, there are 7 catholic congregations, 8 orders, 4 000 members of congregations in Estonia (according to the census of 2000, 5 757 people considered themselves to be Catholic). The congregations of the Roman Catholic Church have been mainly established in the cities. As was mentioned, several orders of the Roman Catholic Church have (re)started their activities in the 1990s: the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of the Dominican Brothers in Estonia (ST Catherine’s monastery), the Order of the Missionaries of Charity in Estonia, the Order of the Most Holy Saviour of St. Bridget (St Bridget’s Convent), Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Felix of Cantalice of III Order of St. Francis of Assisi, Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the Congregation of Immaculate Conception of Virgin Mary, and the Neocathehumenals.

With the assistance of the Holy See several important events have taken place: the renovation of the congregation building in Narva, the construction of the congregation building in Valga, the construction of the Tallinn Catholic Centre, the establishment of the Tartu Catholic School, the creation of the Academia Catholica Estoniensis in the old Dominican Monastery. Consultations have taken place to translate the work of Augustine De Civitate Dei into Estonian.

In April 2001, Pirita’s district government decided to give use of the ruins of St Bridget's Convent and the cemetery over to the Order of the Most Holy Saviour of St Bridget for ten years. Co-ordinated by Lagle Parek, the executive director of the charity organisation Caritas, a new convent complex was built beside the ruins and was opened in August 2001, when the anniversary St Bridget's birth was celebrated.

In November 2003, the Nuncio Arch Bishop Peter Stephan Zurbriggen gave former Estonian Ambassador to the Holy See Indrek Tarand the Great Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great for helping develop relations between the Holy See and Estonia.

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