12.02.2007
BELARUS: WHY WERE CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND NUNS EXPELLED?


Seven Polish Catholic priests and five nuns were forced out of Belarus at
the end of 2006, Forum 18 News Service notes. Fr Mariusz Ilaszewicz told
Forum 18 that his high level of activity, including youth and alcohol
rehabilitation meetings open to all, was responsible for the expulsion
decision. Another expelled priest, Fr Jaroslaw Hrynaszkiewicz, expressed
similar thoughts to Forum 18. Fr Mariusz commented that "They don't want
priests who work and try to develop their faith. Anything a priest says is
considered political - if he talks about the lack of truth or freedom in
Belarus he is immediately considered an opponent of the system. But there
are grave violations of human rights in Belarus." Speaking of a protest
hunger strike - which has now stopped - Fr Mariusz noted that he was
astonished by the parishioners' own initiative. "They overcame fear -
solidarity is beginning even in these little villages." A parishoner told
Forum 18 that a Belarusian parish priest was now in the parish and that
local Catholics have been given "no reasons, no answers," for the
expulsion. However, Forum 18 was told "we all support" their expelled
priest. The Belarusian Consulate in Warsaw has warned priests on short
visits "not to engage in any religious activity."

BELARUS: WHY WERE CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND NUNS EXPELLED?

By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

One of a group of seven Polish Catholic priests and five nuns forced to
leave Belarus by the end of 2006, Fr Mariusz Iliaszewicz, has told Forum 18
News Service from Warsaw that he believes his high level of activity was
responsible. During the 1990s officials twice withdrew his work permit
claiming that the youth meetings he organised open to non-Catholics and
attended by guests from France, Germany, India and Poland were illegal; in
2005 the fact that half those attending an alcoholism rehabilitation
programme he set up were Orthodox also attracted state criticism, he said:
"They don't like ecumenical meetings."

The Belarus-based Christian Human Rights House recently reported that a
coach of more than 40 young Catholics and Protestants was detained and
thoroughly searched for almost five hours on the Belarusian border with
Poland on 3 January. The young people were returning to Belarus after a
pilgrimage to Zagreb, Croatia, where they had participated in an ecumenical
meeting of the Taizé Community. One of the pilgrims remarked that he
believed the party had been targeted as "young, active Christians." Several
copies of the independent political newspaper "Nasha Niva" were
confiscated.

Speaking to Forum 18 on 12 January, Fr Iliaszewicz also maintained that
the state's decision to bar the 12 priests and nuns was political. "They
don't want priests who work and try to develop their faith. Anything a
priest says is considered political - if he talks about the lack of truth
or freedom in Belarus he is immediately considered an opponent of the
system. But there are grave violations of human rights in Belarus."

While all 12 barred priests and nuns had worked in Grodno [Hrodna]
Diocese, Fr Iliaszewicz suggested that the decision was part of central
policy, as "officials in Grodno region aren't independent." He agreed,
however, that the strength of both Catholicism and the Polish community in
Grodno region might explain why that diocese was targeted.

Fr Iliaszewicz also confirmed that a hunger strike begun on 28 December by
approximately 100 of his parishioners in protest at his forced departure
was halted after four days. Bishop Aleksandr Kaszkiewicz of Grodno had been
concerned that Fr Iliaszewicz would be arrested and sent to prison, he
explained, "so he asked me and I asked them to stop - my visa ended on 31
December and my only option was to leave." Emphasising that the hunger
strike was the parishioners' own initiative, he told Forum 18 that he had
been astonished by it. "They overcame fear - solidarity is beginning even
in these little villages."

There has been a mixed state response to such protests, by both Catholics
and Protestants, against the state's violations of religious freedom (see
F18News 20 December 2006
). After exhausting
other methods of negotiation with the state authorities, some religious
believers are adopting tactics more usually associated with secular
political activism in their pursuit of religious freedom. Mainstream
opposition political activists are in turn drawing on religious ideas (see
F18News 29 November 2006
).

To Fr Iliaszewicz's knowledge, there has been no state response to
subsequent efforts by local Catholics to get him reinstated at the Parish
of SS Simon and Jude Thaddaeus in Lazduny village, the Parish of the
Transfiguration of Our Lord in Yuratishki village and the Parish of St
Hubert in Bakshty village. Fr Iliaszewicz helped renovate the church in
Lazduny and in 2003 - after nine attempts to obtain permission - built a
church in Yuratishki to replace one demolished in 1948.

One of Fr Iliaszewicz's former parishioners confirmed to Forum 18 from
Lazduny on 11 January that the villagers' hunger strike has ceased and
added that a new parish priest - with Belarusian citizenship - has already
taken his place. The parishoner also maintained that, while local Catholics
have still been given "no reasons, no answers" concerning Fr Iliaszewicz's
forced departure, "we all support him."

In a separate development in early December, Catholic parishioners of Our
Lady of Ostrobrama Church in Grodno city halted their hunger strike after
five days when they received preliminary endorsement from the regional
authorities for the construction of a new church building (see F18News 29
November 2006 ). Their
parish priest remarked that they had been inspired by the example of New
Life, the Minsk-based charismatic church whose members and supporters went
on a high-profile hunger strike in defence of their property rights in
October (see F18News 20 October 2006
).

Like Fr Iliaszewicz, Fr Jaroslaw Hrynaszkiewicz served in Grodno Diocese
for ten years, and also appears to have been particularly active there
prior to his forced departure on 31 December. Speaking from Italy on 11
January, he told Forum 18 how he had founded and edited "Word of Life",
Grodno's Catholic diocesan newspaper, taught Italian and media studies as a
professor at Grodno's Catholic seminary and served at the Parish of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Makarovtsy village, some 40km south of the
city.

"And now it's all over," Fr Hrynaszkiewicz rued, pointing out that, while
Bishop Kaszkiewicz has managed to appoint a young Belarusian priest in his
editorial role, the diocese does not have anyone with sufficient expertise
in Italian and media studies to replace him at the seminary. This is
further complicated by the legal requirement that all teaching personnel at
religious educational institutions be proficient in the state languages of
Belarusian and Russian.

Fr Hrynaszkiewicz also told Forum 18 that no official grounds have been
given for his expulsion. "No one has said anything, no reasons have been
given," he remarked. "We - and the people there - want to know why." His
only guess was that the authorities might have disliked something about his
diocesan newspaper - but he had no idea what.

The telephone of Grodno region's main religious affairs official, Igor
Popov, went unanswered on 11 and 12 January. Reached on what appeared to be
a clear telephone line on 2 October, Popov confirmed his name and
patronymic but then claimed not to be able to hear Forum 18's questions.
Popov's telephone went unanswered when Forum 18 rang back immediately.

In a 29 November response to more than 12,000 signatures protesting
against the expulsions of Fr Mariusz Iliaszewicz, Fr Leonard Czuchonski, Fr
Andrzej Sadowski and Fr Jaroslaw Hrynaszkiewicz, Plenipotentiary for
Religious and Ethnic Affairs Leonid Gulyako tells Bishop Kaszkiewicz that
he "was informed in person" on 10 and 23 November about the state's
decision not to extend the relevant religious work permits. Maintaining
that the invitation of foreign citizens for religious activity in Grodno
Diocese "lies within your area of competency," he adds that "in this regard
we are prepared to consider for approval communication from you regarding
the invitation of foreign citizens to parishes" - except for those 12
Polish priests and nuns refused permission to continue working in Belarus
after the end of 2006 (see F18News 3 October 2006
).

Bishop Kaszkiewicz distributed Gulyako's response in a 5 December open
letter to members of his Diocese, requesting prayer for the 12 Polish
priests and nuns. He insists that, when he presented the state authorities
in June with a list of foreign priests and nuns who would continue to work
in Grodno Diocese next year, "I expressed my pastoral trust in all of them.
I do not see any reason why I should withdraw that trust." Bishop Aleksandr
Kaszkiewicz also expresses his "regret and protest" at the state's decision
to bar the 12 (see F18News 3 October 2006
).

Parishioners and colleagues of Fr Czuchonski were unable to provide Forum
18 with contact details for him on 11 January. He served at the Parish of
Archangel Michael in Mikhalishki village and the Parish of St George in
Bolshyye Sviranki village, both of which are near to the Lithuanian border.
Forum 18 has also been unable to reach Fr Sadowski, who served at the
Parish of the Finding of the True Cross in Grodno and the Parish of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the nearby village of Kozlovichi.

While territorially smaller than each of the other three Catholic dioceses
in Belarus, Grodno Diocese has approximately twice as many parishes,
putting it on a par with the Belarusian Orthodox Church in that region.
According to 2005 state figures, there were 170 Catholic parishes in Grodno
region supported by 168 clergy, of whom 72 were foreign citizens.

Of the 350 or so Catholic priests in Belarus, more than half are foreign
citizens. Two did not have their annual visas renewed at the end of 2005,
and were thus forced to return to their native Poland (see F18News 22
December 2005 , 6
January 2006 and 13
January 2006 ).

A Council of Ministers decree, dated 23 February 1999, controls the
activity of foreign religious workers in Belarus. Should the State
Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs grant a religious community
permission to invite a foreign religious worker for up to one year, the
decree states, he or she may conduct religious activity only within houses
of worship belonging to or premises continually rented by that community.
The transfer of a foreign religious worker from one religious organisation
to another - such as between parishes - requires permission from the
relevant state official dealing with religious affairs, even for a single
service.

Even foreign Catholic priests making short visits are subject to tight
restrictions. "One Polish priest recently went to Belarus to study the
language, but was warned at the Belarusian Consulate in Warsaw before he
went not to engage in any religious activity," Polish Catholic sources have
told Forum 18. "When local Catholics in Belarus saw he was a priest and
asked him why he wasn't serving as a priest there, he had to tell them he
had been warned not to conduct religious activity and was abiding by the
law." A Polish Catholic priest was detained after celepbrating Mass while
passing through Minsk in September 2006 (see F18News 3 October 2006
).

Foreign religious workers invited by local religious communities of
various confessions are increasingly being barred from Belarus (see F18News
18 October 2006 ). (END)

For more background information see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom
survey at .

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
.

A printer-friendly map of Belarus is available at