Imprisoned Belarusian priests released weeks after cardinal’s visit

‘The Holy See never closes its doors. When people meet face to face, concrete results are born,’ said Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti.

Less than a month after the visit of Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, the Belarusian authorities released two Catholic priests who had spent more than two years in prison.

Both Fr Henryk Okotolowicz and Fr Andrzej Juchniewicz were originally sentenced for 11 and 13 years respectively, on political grounds. Their release was reported on 20 November.

The next day, the Katolik.Life news site said both priests were immediately taken abroad and are now in the Vatican, adding: “When the priests will be able to return to Belarus and what awaits them next remains unknown.”

On the same day, Vatican News published a lengthy interview with Gugerotti, the prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches and a former apostolic nuncio to Belarus, who said that the release of priests was a direct result of the Holy See’s diplomacy.

“The Holy See never closes its doors. When people meet face to face, concrete results are born,” Gugerotti emphasised.

Both priests received pardons together with a group of Ukrainian citizens, convicted in Belarus “on criminal charges”, Radio Svoboda reported on 22 November, quoting the statement from President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s press secretary Natalia Eismont.

This decision was made “at the request of Ukraine and in furtherance of agreements with US President Donald Trump to create conditions for resolving the conflict”.

Meanwhile, Okotolowicz and Juchniewicz were pardoned “at the request of Pope Leo XIV, with the participation of Metropolitan Joseph Stanevsky, as a gesture of goodwill, guided by principles of mercy and humanism, taking into account the health of the convicts, and also with the aim of developing relations between the Republic of Belarus and the Holy See,” Eismont said.

Orthodox priest Yuri Roy, who fled Lukashenko’s suppression of human rights in 2020 and now lives in Vilnius, told to The Tablet in October, that “at present, the principle of human trafficking is clearly visible, both in terms of imprisoned priests and in general of all our political prisoners. The regime creates a situation in which people become hostages in order to later claim benefits for itself.”

An analysis on the website of the ecumenical group Christian Vision noted that Belarusian state media seemed fascinated with Gugerotti’s repeated remarks that “the Vatican is against the sanctions and isolation” of Minsk, though he avoided specifying if he meant Lukashenko or the Belarusian people.

“Clearly, the dictator was delighted to receive numerous compliments, even flattery, from the papal legate. Any international agenda, other than meetings with African or Russian officials, is very important to Lukashenko,” the analysis said.

Christian Vision quotes Natalia Vasilevich, an Orthodox theologian and human rights lawyer, who said Cardinal Gugerotti took the role of “the good cop” which has not yet been adopted by other international actors in dealing with Lukashenko. Vasilevich emphasised that in contrast to the sanctions imposed on the regime by the Western countries, “positive results can be achieved on humanitarian issues – in particular, in the release of political prisoners”.

Meanwhile, the Catholic community itself seems to be caught in the “big game of interests”, Christian Vision said. “The leadership … is forced to attempt a ‘reset’ with the state authorities; priests and bishops in Belarus are increasingly forced to attend state events; the papal envoy is forced to smile and please Lukashenko; and apostolic nuncios are forced to present him with their credentials.”

A few days before the release of the imprisoned priests, Christian Vision published a story about the consecration of a new Catholic church in Baranovichi, sponsored by individuals including the businessman Alexander Zaitsev, nicknamed “Lukashenko’s wallet” for helping Belarusian pro-government businesses avoid Western sanctions.

“He appears to be aiding a noble cause, but the main question is whether he demands anything in return and how much influence he exerts over the clergy and the Church’s activities in general,” it said.

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