consecrated_by predecessor successor consecration birth_place title article_title type see term birth_date image ordination name church ordained_by
he and he msgr juozas tunaitis francesco colasuonno , he msgr tadevush kandrusievich , he msgr jerzy mazur svd incumbent june 16 , 1991 karaganda , kazakhstan bishop of transfiguration at novosibirsk joseph werth
 bishop latin diocese of transfiguration at novosibirsk february 11 , 2002 -- present 4 october 1952 coat of arms of joseph werth.svg may 27 , 1984 joseph werth sj catholic church society 2013 of jesus ibx `` ordained by '' august
joseph werth

bishop joseph werth sj -lrb- ; born october 4 , 1952 in karaganda -rrb- is bishop of transfiguration in novosibirsk -lrb- russia -rrb- .
named as the latin-rite apostolic administrator of siberia - a see that encompassed 4.2 million square miles -lrb- 10.3 per cent of all the land on earth -rrb- and extends through nine of the world 's twenty four time zones - by pope john paul ii on april 13 , 1991 , werth initially had only two ukrainian-born priests to help him minister to an estimated 500,000 catholics .
he has since assembled over 100 priests , nuns and lay missionaries from 18 different countries , mostly from poland , germany , and slovakia , but also nicaragua , lebanon , india , argentina , south korea , and other countries .
at least fourteen are from the united states .
the apostolic administration of siberia was divided in 1999 into the apostolic administrations of eastern and of western siberia , and the apostolic administration of western siberia was elevated in 2002 to the rank of a diocese , the diocese of transfiguration in novosibirsk .
the center of his diocese is at novosibirsk , the capital of siberia , where the cathedral stands .
he has sent church workers to the largest cities of siberia , as well as many towns with sizeable catholic populations .
joseph werth began studies for the priesthood clandestinely in lithuania under the direction of a leader of the underground jesuits , who also secretly accepted him into the lithuanian province of the society of jesus .
later he completed his studies at the seminary in kaunas .
in 1984 father werth became the first roman catholic priest ordained since the 1930s in the asian part of the former soviet union .
he pursued pastoral work at aktyubinsk , kazakhstan from 1984 till 1988 .
he was reportedly so successful in his ministry at aktyubinsk that the local communist officials expelled him from the city in 1988 .
in 1988 he moved to marx in russia 's saratov oblast , where two of his own sisters -lrb- both sisters of the blessed sacrament -rrb- had organized about thirty catholic congregations among the thousands of ethnic germans who , following the death of stalin , had returned to the area of the former volga german republic .
he served there until 1991 .
bishop werth is fluent in russian , german , and lithuanian .
