BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/12/2005

Belarus ousts Catholic priests

Minsk, Dec. 22 (Forum 18/CWNews.com) - Two Catholic priests from Poland who have served in Belarus for more than a decade have been ordered to leave the country by year's end, the Forum 18 news service reports. The priests' visas have not been renewed.

Father Robert Krzywicki, who led a parish in Borisov, near the capital city of Minsk, told Forum 18 that he thought his expulsion was prompted by his work with young people, both Catholic and non-Catholic, and his active role in ecumenical and charitable events in the town.

Father Krzywicki observed that expulsions of active parish priests can severely handicap the work of missionaries. "It takes about five years for a foreign priest to learn the language, the culture and the situation," he told Forum 18.

Of about 250 Catholic priests in Belarus, more than half are foreign citizens. The Catholic Church faces tight restrictions on priests it invites, being subject to an annual quota and unable to transfer them from one parish to another without the religious visa being cancelled and reissued. Moreover, foreign religious personnel are banned from serving in Minsk itself.

Source:

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41400