Moscow Retaliation

For two years the Rev. Georges Bissonnette of Central Falls, R.I. has shepherded a strange little flock in a dangerous wilderness. Under the terms of the 1933 Roosevelt-Litvinoff agreement by which the U.S. recognized the Soviet Union, U.S. denominations were permitted to send clergymen to minister to their nationals in Moscow. The Augustinians of the Assumption were chosen to supply priests to the Roman Catholics, and Father Bissonnette was the fourth Assump-tionist to serve a tour of duty in the enemy's citadel (no Protestant groups have ever sent ministers).

French-speaking Father Bissonnette, 33, has been a lively and well-liked figure in Moscow's tiny free world. He captained the U.S. ice-hockey team that recently beat the British embassy contingent, and the improvised chapel in his Moscow apartment has been the spiritual center for many Catholics on the diplomatic staffs. One day last week a summons came to Father Bissonnette from the Soviet police. His permit to live in the U.S.S.R. was herewith withdrawn, they told him; he had better start packing fast.

Young Father Bissonnette had looked forward to a routine departure this spring, when another Assumptionist priest was to replace him. The sudden expulsion was obviously an act of retaliation for U.S. refusal to extend the visitor's visa of Metropolitan Boris, Exarch of the Russian Orthodox Church of North America, who left Manhattan last week after his prescribed stay of 60 days.

The U.S. at once "protested vigorously" through Ambassador Charles E. ("Chip") Bohlen that Father Bissonnette's expulsion was a violation of the 1933 agreement and was "in no way related to cases of temporary visits" like that of Metropolitan Boris. In Moscow Father Bissonnette sadly said a last Mass in his apartment for 20-odd members of his flock. He advised them to turn for spiritual guidance to the Russian priest of the Church of St. Louis, Moscow's only Roman Catholic Church. Said Father Bissonnette: "If you do not speak Russian or Polish and have trouble with the language, just say 'Ya vinovat' (I am guilty), and he will understand and give you absolution."

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