The Belarusian authorities expelled a group of Polish clergy who have served in their parishes for decades.
Christian Vision, an ecumenical website, reported that five priests and one monk were obliged to leave Belarus last week, while those who remain were uncertain of their future because the authorities can extend or revoke their residence permits every six months.
“The authorities have denied five Catholic priests and one monk of the Minsk-Mogilev archdiocese, who have Polish citizenship, permission to continue serving in Belarus,” the website reported on 21 May.
All of the priests have been ministering in the country for many years.
One of them, Fr Lech Bakhanek, came to the St Alexis parish in Ivyanyets in 2000 and eventually founded numerous pastoral projects.
According to Christian Vision, the authorities tried not to renew his residence permit in 2016, they cancelled the decision and issued a new permit after local Catholics protested.
The expulsions followed others in recent weeks.
On 3 May, Christian Vision reported that the permits were denied for three Polish Catholic priests of the Diocese of Vitebsk, while in early March two Polish priests were expelled from the Diocese of Pinsk, leaving six parishes of the Brest region with no priest at all.
According to the Belarusian website Katolik.Life, “the faithful learned that some of these priests were recently warned by local authorities that their permits would not be extended, and that in order to remain in the country, they must submit a package of documents to obtain Belarusian citizenship”.
Last week the Instagram account of the Soligorsk parish called on locals “to ‘ring all the bells’ and send appeals to government agencies”, including the Presidential Administration, the Minsk Regional Executive Committee and the apostolic nunciature.
“In any case, the trend is now clear: an exodus of Polish priests from Belarus, where there is already a catastrophic shortage of clergy, and many priests are forced to serve several parishes,” Katolik.Life said.