ABSTRACT
The end of the USSR produced different kinds of problems and challenges for the Catholic Church in Russia. On the one hand, the Church was free and it now had the problems associated with freedom and growth in Russia. On the other hand, the Church was depicted as a traditional foe of Orthodoxy and Russia, and this image hampered its independence and expansion. The St. Thomas Aquinas College of Catholic Theology in Moscow, under the leadership of the Jesuits, offered theological education to laymen, especially young ones, and preparing catechists as well as specialists for social and charity activities. The College, established in 1991, also offers a two-year course of study for catechists and a fairly broad correspondence program for home study. In 1991 about 140 Catholic publications, books, brochures and reference sources appeared. In the interim, though, the Catholic Church has survived the Scylla of traditional hatred and Charybdis of Communism.
