Clergy in Belarus are deleting their social media profiles to avoid arrest, according to church sources, as local parishes face pressure under a new religious law. Source: OSV News.
“With church communities required to re-register, all are vulnerable to new restrictions,” said Natallia Vasilevich, coordinator of the ecumenical Christian Vision organisation, referencing a recent law that requires all parishes to reapply for legal status and restricts educational and missionary activity by churches.
“Priests can be arrested and see their parishes deprived of legal status, if they post or share anything deemed extremist. This is why they’ve been asked by their bishops to cease social media activity,” the lay theologian said.
She spoke as two more senior clergy faced charges of distributing “extremist material” under Article 19:11 of Belarus’s Code of Administrative Offenses.
Ms Vasilevich said official monitoring agencies had checked social media records as part of an independent media purge, often keeping screenshots, forcing many priests to close their accounts rather than spend time editing them.
She added that Catholic clergy were also impeded from discussing “personal and confessional problems” with parishioners, knowing their private telephone messages could be checked by police.
Belarus was placed on the 2024 World Watch List of the most dangerous countries for Christians by advocacy group Open Doors. It was also on the list in 2023.
The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need said in its country overview, “Most human rights, including religious freedom, are endangered due to the authoritarian nature of the government in Belarus.”
The report said 36 Roman and Greek Catholic clergy had been “subjected to … persecution for political reasons” since 2020, alongside 21 Orthodox and 29 Protestant pastors.
Fears of new church restrictions follow the departure after a September 15 farewell Mass of the Vatican’s Croatian nuncio, Archbishop Ante Jozic.
Ms Vasilevich added that Catholic priests now languishing in jail were only “a few examples of many suffering people,” adding that she counted on the international community to continue “sending strong messages daily” to the Lukashenko Government, demanding an end to repression.
FULL STORY
Catholic priests face new pressures after nuncio departs Belarus (By Jonathan Luxmoore, OSV News)