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Soviet Union [USSR] Catholic
Catholics accounted for a substantial and active religious body
in the Soviet Union. Their number increased dramatically with the
annexation of western Ukraine in 1939 and the Baltic republics in
1940. Catholics in the Soviet Union were divided between those
belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, recognized by the
government, and those remaining loyal to the Ukrainian Catholic
Church, banned since 1946.
Roman Catholic Church
The majority of the 5.5 million Roman Catholics in the Soviet
Union lived in the Lithuanian, Belorussian, and Latvian republics,
with a sprinkling in the Moldavian, Ukrainian, and Russian
republics. Since World War II, the most active Roman Catholic
Church in the Soviet Union was in the Lithuanian Republic, where
the majority of people are Catholics. The Roman Catholic Church
there has been viewed as an institution that both fosters and
defends Lithuanian national interests and values. Since 1972 a
Catholic underground publication, The Chronicle of the Catholic
Church in Lithuania, has spoken not only for Lithuanians'
religious rights but also for their national rights.
Data as of May 1989
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