Pie Eugène Neveu

In early 1926, when Pope Pius XI was considering secretly establishing a provisional Roman Catholic hierarchy inside the Soviet Union, he spoke to the superior general of the Assumptionists, Gervais Quénard, who had been a missionary in Russia. When the pope asked about Neveu, Quénard described him as pious and peaceable, but also cunning. They agreed that he would be the right candidate to become a bishop.^[7] In February the pope sent the French Jesuit bishop Michel d'Herbigny to the Soviet Union with the papal authority to create a hierarchy there, including to consecrate Neveu and several others as bishops.^[8] In April, Neveu was given permission by the Soviets to travel from the Donbass to Moscow to become the pastor of the Church of St. Louis des Français, which was owned by the French and served the foreign Catholics in the city.^[9]

He met with d'Herbigny in Moscow on April 21, and was surprised to be consecrated as a bishop, as well as being appointed as apostolic delegate in the Soviet Union.^[9][10] In addition, Neveu was named as the head of one of the apostolic administrations that d'Herbigny planned to set up in the country, that of Moscow.^[9][11] Neveu gave him a list of candidates he thought could lead the administrations.^[9] In September he received authorization by the Holy See via d'Herbigny to appoint future apostolic administrators in the event of vacancies and to be responsible for the Catholic Church in Russia. Furthermore, the Russian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Russia was subordinated to the Latin administration of Moscow due to the arrest of Exarch Leonid Feodorov, and Neveu was also given the power to receive Orthodox clergy and faithful into the Catholic Church secretly.^[12]

Neveu was a sharp analyst of the situation inside the Soviet Union and a capable administrator.^[9] After d'Herbigny was forced to leave by the Soviets, Neveu sent him reports every two weeks.^[13] Although the Church of St. Louis des Français was within sight of the Soviet OGPU headquarters, it was owned by the French government,^[4] and Neveu had political protection as a French citizen.^[9] The Soviets were aware that d'Herbigny was setting up a secret Catholic hierarchy,^[14] and while they could not arrest Neveu due to his political protection, they did begin arresting most of the other Catholic clergy in early 1927, putting the Church into a difficult position.^[15] Despite this, Neveu continued to secretly receive Orthodox into the Catholic Church over the next several years,^[16] and served the members of his parish in Moscow, who were of different ethnic backgrounds.^[17] Although he was Latin rite, he also preached in the vernacular, Russian, despite the opposition to it among some Poles.^[18] Together with d'Herbigny, he was able to arrange for thousands of religious artifacts from Russia to be preserved by having them sent to the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.^[19]

In 1936 Neveu had go to France for medical treatment and was not allowed to return to the Soviet Union afterward.^[17] The Soviet embassy in Paris denied his repeated requests for an entry visa.^[20]

He died in Paris on October 17, 1946, and was buried at the Church of St. Joan of Arc in Gien.^[1]