Two Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) missionaries have been arrested in Belarus. The announcement was made by the General Superior Luis Ignacio Rois Alonso this Monday.
Editorial (05/13/2024 15:42, Gaudium Press) The General Superior of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Fr. Rois Alonso, expressed deep concern over the “news of the arrest of two of our brothers in Belarus,” the priests Andrzej Yuchnevich and Pavel Lemekh, who are engaged in missionary work at the diocesan shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Šumilin.
So far, details about the reasons for the arrest have not been disclosed. They are currently awaiting trial and are under Belarusian custody, for alleged subversive activities against the Belarusian state. Both priests are Belarusian citizens, according to the order.
Fr. Andrzej Yuchnevichi, OMI, superior of the Oblate Mission in Belarus, had publicly expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling for prayers for the end of the war.
The spokesman for the Polish Province of the Order, to which the Oblate Mission in Belarus is linked, confirmed the detention of the two Oblate missionaries from the diocese of Vitebsk by local authorities.
Not an Isolated Incident
This detention is not an isolated incident. According to Christian Vision, an organization monitoring religious freedom in Belarus, at least 60 priests have been targets of political persecution since October 11, 2023. Indeed, since the nationwide protests in the summer of 2020, when the presidential elections were considered fraudulent in favor of ruler Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian authorities have vigorously repressed criticism of the regime and taken measures against the Catholic Church, to which more than ten percent of Belarusians belong. Several clergy are imprisoned on questionable grounds.
The matter was also addressed last year in a proposed resolution by the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. The text requested the European Parliament to vehemently condemn “the persecution of religious communities in Belarus, as well as the persecution of priests and laypeople who refuse to support the position of the Lukashenko regime.”
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
