Priests flee Crimea after takeover

Several Catholic priests fled the country’s Black Sea region of Crimea after receiving threatening phone calls and messages from local pro-Russian armed militia and in some cases being abducted for several days, writes Josef Pazderka. “The situation is very dangerous, we all hope that Western political forces will stop (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” said Fr Bronislaw Bernacki, Roman Catholic Bishop of Odessa-Simferopol.

Thousands of Russian troops together with local pro-Russian militia seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in what Moscow calls “protection of ethnic Russians from persecution by a fascist government in Kiev” but was  condemned by the Ukrainian Government in Kiev and the international community as a grave breach of international law.

With the growing numbers of Russian troops and local pro-Russian militia, the pressure mounted on people in Crimea who did not recognise the Moscow takeover, including Ukrainian Roman and Greek Catholic priests.

“We need help and spiritual support. We ask for prayers during Lent because we need a miracle, a miracle of peace,” said Fr Jacek Pyl, a Roman Catholic priest in Crimea. Head of Ukrainian Jesuits Fr David Nazar called the Crimea annexation “completely illegal”.

However, the Russian Orthodox Church praised “the peacemaking mission” that “should guarantee the Crimea citizens the right to self-determination and close ties with other peoples of historical Rus”. “Crimea was and is an integral part of our united, multinational Church,” Fr Vladimir Legoyda, of the Moscow Patriarchate, said.