861.404/1–1246

The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Kennan) to the Secretary of State

restricted
No. 2361

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegram 2101, October 5, 19458 concerning the departure of Father George Antonio Laberge for Moscow and to report the present status of the ministration to the spiritual needs of the American Catholics in Moscow, as envisaged by the exchange of documents between President Roosevelt and Mr. Litvinov in 1933.9

As Department is aware, Father Braun, who came to Moscow in 1934 with the original Embassy group, and who had been in Moscow since that time without interruption, left Moscow on the Secretary of State’s plane on December 27, 1945, having turned over his office to his successor, Father Laberge.

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As the Department is also aware, Father Braun, and now Father Laberge, have always held services in Moscow, for want of any other suitable premises, in the Catholic Church generally known as the French Church.10 For this reason, they have been closely connected with the French Embassy and have been in some degree dependent on the latter for the possibility of exercising their religious office.

It has lately become apparent that the French Embassy is anxious to have the French Church staffed by a French priest. Doubtless with this in mind the French brought to Moscow an elderly Jesuit priest, Father Bourgeois, who was found to be in Estonia when the Red Army advanced into that country.11 Since he is the spiritual subordinate to Father Laberge he can not be placed in charge of the Church unless the latter leaves it.

In these circumstances, Father Laberge has the strong feeling that the French Embassy would be pleased if he would leave the French Church. Just recently the French Embassy has laid claim to the apartment in which Father Laberge was living (where Father Braun formerly lived) and asked Father Laberge to leave it in order that it might be made available for Father Bourgeois. The French Ambassador12 took so strong a personal interest in this matter and made so much of a prestige issue of it that it was impossible for this Embassy to do much to assist Father Laberge in this particular problem without jeopardizing its relations with the French Embassy; but I took the occasion to stress to the French Ambassador the sense of responsibility which the Embassy felt for Father Laberge’s future welfare here and for seeing that everything possible is done to provide him with the facilities necessary for the carrying out of his spiritual ministration.

All in all, however, Father Laberge feels that he can no longer regard the use of the French Church as a permanent solution for members of the American community here and he is therefore contemplating requesting the Soviet authorities to make available to him another suitable building which could be used for this purpose. The Department will recall that President Roosevelt’s letter to Mr. Litvinov specifically envisaged such a contingency and provided that members of the American community should be given the opportunity and the possibility to lease a building for purposes of religious worship.

Father Laberge has consulted me about the attitude of the Embassy toward such a project. I have told him that the Embassy could take no initiative in the matter but that I would be glad to support, if [Page 676] necessary, any request he may make of the Soviet authorities which comes within the scope of the late President’s letter.

Father Laberge has not yet been received by the Soviet official responsible for the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia,13 but hopes to have an interview with him in the near future and eventually to advance his request through that channel.

If he is successful in obtaining a church of his own, I personally think it quite possible that the Russians may clamp down on the French Church and compel it to close. But I have warned the French of this possibility, and if it materializes, they have no one but themselves to blame.

Respectfully yours,

George F. Kennan
  1. Same as telegram 620, October 5, 1945, to Berlin, Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. v, p. 1131.
  2. This exchange between President Roosevelt and People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, Maxim Maximovich Litvinov, took place in Washington on November 16, 1933; see Foreign Relations, The Soviet Union, 1933–1939, pp. 2933. For previous documentation on United States interest in religious conditions in the Soviet Union and the replacement of Father Leopold Braun as the American priest in Moscow, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. v, pp. 1111 ff.
  3. Church of Saint-Louis-des-Français.
  4. See telegram 3440, October 3, 1945, from Moscow, Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. v, p. 1130.
  5. Gen. Georges Catroux.
  6. Ivan Vasilyevich Polyansky, Chairman of the State Commission for the Affairs of Religious Cults, attached to the Council of People’s Commissars of the Soviet Union.