Source: www.forum18.org
Date: July 23, 2021
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
Amid a continuing crackdown on civil society after the August 2020
falsified presidential election, Aleksandr Lukashenko's regime is
pressuring religious communities to support it. At the same time, the
regime has sought to change prayers for Belarus' future – which many
communities have organised since regime violence following the election –
into pro-regime prayers. The regime has also sought to ban prayers for
political prisoners.
The KGB secret police (which has retained the same name since the Soviet
period) keeps political opponents or perceived opponents under close
scrutiny. Among their targets are clergy and active members of a wide range
of religious communities and initiatives, human rights defenders told Forum
18 (see below).
Since August 2020, the Belarusian Orthodox Church – the largest religious
community in Belarus - has removed senior bishops and lower clergy seen as
disloyal to the regime. The Church has also given the regime lists of
priests who have supported protests against the regime, human rights
defenders told Forum 18 (see below).
One of the clergy removed by the Orthodox Church was Archbishop Artemy of
Grodno in June 2021. "This [removal from office] happened on the orders of
the state," the Archbishop told Radio Free Europe, adding that "they
considered it necessary to deal with me". He commented that the regime has
been undertaking a "general purge" since the August 2020 election. "While
they have a bit of quiet, there's time to put the church in its place a
little. Because not all church figures support the existing regime" (see
below).
Lukashenko has also intervened in the way the Belarusian Orthodox Church
(which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate Russian Orthodox Church) may
decide to structure itself. He publicly warned against any moves to try to
create an autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Church under the direct
authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, even though there have been no
serious proposals for such a church. Archbishop Artemy has described such
claims by the regime as "unreal", commenting that it is "speculation and
false accusation" (see below).
The regime has repeatedly criticised and warned the Catholic Church, the
second largest religious community. For four months in 2020 exiled the
country's then senior Catholic bishop was exiled, before returning and
resigning. The regime has also punished priests who have supported the
protests, most recently bringing new charges against Fr Vyacheslav Barok
for his opposition to election fraud and regime violence. In early July
2021 he fled to neighbouring Poland (see below).
Public Prosecutor Aleksandr Kazakevich claimed to Forum 18 on 23 July that
Fr Barok was not given a copy of the official warning read to him as: "The
law specifies that such documents are not to be handed over." Prosecutor
Kazakevich added that he had followed Fr Barok's account of the case
against him which he had posted on social media, as well as other sermons
and messages he had posted online. He refused to comment on what he had
thought of Fr Barok's messages against state violence (see below).
The regime has also tried to stop individuals and religious communities
singing the hymn Mighty God (Mahutny Bozha in Belarusian), which dates back
to the 1940s and was unsuccessfully proposed as a new national anthem in
1995. Since August 2020 it has often been sung by protestors against the
regime's election falsification and violence. On 2 July, Lukashenko
threatened that "our media are writing more and more that in [Catholic]
churches they want to pray (tomorrow, not today) under 'Mighty God'. Let's
see, they'll get what for." Police raided Minsk's Catholic cathedral after
the congregation sang the hymn at the end of Mass on 3 July 2021 (see
below).
The regime also attempted to impose a pro-regime "prayer day" on 3 July "in
the form of a morning service .. in all [Orthodox] churches, [Catholic]
churches, mosques and synagogues of the traditional confessions of Belarus
with the widest attraction of believers, as well as representatives of the
agencies of state administration, society, culture and art" (see below).
Dmitry Korneyenko, an Orthodox Christian from Vitebsk, stated that the
regime was forcing state employees to attend Russian Orthodox prayers for
Belarus. He commented that state compulsion was necessary as trust by local
Orthodox Christians in their religious leaders had declined. "The
attendance at the prayer 'For Belarus', organised in Assumption Cathedral,
was few in number," Korneyenko noted on his Facebook page on 11 July.
"Dozens of employees of the Emergency Situations Ministry of Vitebsk Region
were forcibly summoned to provide an image of large numbers attending" (see
below).
An official told Forum 18 on 23 July that the regime's main religious
affairs official, Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGC5WttR05QDnhpIhxDwhZaK9C8sQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
not talk to Forum 18. "No comment," the official in Rumak's office added
before putting the phone down.
The many Protestant churches and smaller religious communities have not
been targeted for high profile repression, with the exception of the
February 2021 eviction of New Life Church from its building
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2639&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGtn4TeC1-4KKee08iA0cT63D08QQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
regime pressure. Also, some other religious communities and individuals
have been punished for protesting against election fraud and regime
violence (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/monitoring&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNFQzZOqTGf4GfcUKmpNYLXk1TZdZA">https://www.belarus2020.churc
The regime has jailed an increasing number of political prisoners
(https://www.google.com/url?q=http://spring96.org/en/press-releases&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNEouYiZaAPkZ9ZlHzt-w_IDGqW-lw">http://spring96.org/en/press-
the falsified presidential elections of August 2020. Many have been
tortured
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/15/belarus-systematic-beatings-torture-protesters&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNEgv6Yp9oqLKOUbtsJ-upeavFIPnw">https://www.hrw.org/news/2020
and political prisoners are frequently denied other human rights such as
freedom of religion and belief
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2672&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNH4z2d3dkizQMVl2x1n8tYybzvPwA">https://www.forum18.org/archi
Removing "disloyal" Orthodox clergy
The Belarusian Orthodox Church, which is part of the Moscow Patriarchate
Russian Orthodox Church, is seen as the religious community most loyal to
Lukashenko.
Following the outbreak of protests in August 2020, the Patriarchal Exarch
in Minsk, Metropolitan Pavel (Ponomaryov), expressed mild support for
reconciliation and an end to violence from the regime. He also apologised
for what his press secretary Fr Sergei Lepin said were "hasty"
congratulations to Lukashenko after the elections.
On 25 August 2020, Moscow Patriarch Kirill removed Metropolitan Pavel as
Patriarchal Exarch
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://belsat.eu/en/news/metropolitan-pavel-removed-from-office-belarusian-orthodox-church-now-led-by-bishop-veniamin&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGDTiaVkInSK0ahFtXKShB8ccJgsg">https://belsat.eu/en/news/met
He replaced him with Veniamin (Tupeko), who was widely seen as more loyal
to the regime. Forum 18 was unable to establish whether the regime called
for Metropolitan Pavel to be removed, or whether Moscow Patriarch Kirill
chose to do so.
On 18 November 2020, the General Prosecutor's Office announced that it had
issued official warnings to Belarusian Orthodox Church press secretary Fr
Lepin – as well as to the Catholic Minsk-Mogilev Diocese Vicar-General,
Bishop Yuri Kasabutsky - about alleged violations of the law. Fr Lepin
resigned as Church spokesperson in late November 2020.
On 27 November 2020, the then- Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic
Affairs (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGC5WttR05QDnhpIhxDwhZaK9C8sQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
Gulyako, issued a written warning to the Belarusian Orthodox Church
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2639&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGtn4TeC1-4KKee08iA0cT63D08QQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
"strict obligation" on all religious communities to abide by Article 16 of
the Constitution, which among other things bans religious organisations
which "are directed against the sovereignty of Belarus, its constitutional
system and social accord". The warning also noted Article 8 of the Religion
Law, which among other things bans the use of places of worship for "events
of a political nature, as well as speeches and calls insulting
representatives of the agencies of state power, officials and individuals".
The warning also pointed out that if a religious community repeats the
"violation" within a year, the Plenipotentiary can apply to the court for
the religious community to be stripped of its legal status (and thus its
right to exist).
On 17 December 2020, the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church,
Metropolitan Veniamin, wrote to Archbishop Artemy (Kishchenko) of Grodno,
informing him of the warning
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2639&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGtn4TeC1-4KKee08iA0cT63D08QQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
to ensure his diocese obeyed these demands.
Archbishop Artemy had in his sermons repeatedly condemned the falsification
and violence
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/archbishop-artemy-hrodna&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNHeNsQ1vkCGyIr5g-I4MfjSnXQogA">https://www.belarus2020.churc
followed the August 2020 election. He did not ban priests under his
jurisdiction from taking part in events which did not have state
permission. In response, some local Orthodox during pro-regime prayer
events began to collect signatures on petitions for the Archbishop's
removal.
On 9 June 2021, the Russian Orthodox Holy Synod accepted a request from the
Belarusian Orthodox Exarchate to retire the 69-year-old Archbishop Artemy
"on grounds of health". "This [removal from office] happened on the orders
of the state," the Archbishop told Radio Free Europe's Belarusian Service
on 13 July, adding that "they considered it necessary to deal with me".
Archbishop Artemy outlined how he thinks his removal had come about. "At
the initiative of this government, representatives of our system spoke with
the patriarch in Moscow and asked him to provide assistance in order to
pacify the situation in Belarus. Apparently, he gave them his blessing and
consent to this. The Synod immediately announced its decision."
Among the complaints against the Archbishop was that he was dividing
society, an accusation he rejected. One complaint was that in photographs
they showed him, a boy in one church in the diocese had painted on a
decorated egg at Easter an image of the Pahonia, the mounted rider which
had been the emblem of Belarus between 1991 and 1995, which Lukashenko
regards as an opposition symbol. The Archbishop dismissed this complaint as
"laughable".
Archbishop Artemy added: "The second accusation was that [opposition hymn]
Mighty God had been sung here" (see below).
Archbishop Artemy added that the regime has been undertaking a "general
purge" since the August 2020 election. "While they have a bit of quiet,
there's time to put the church in its place a little. Because not all
church figures support the existing regime."
In the mid-2000s, Archbishop Artemy had rejected pressure from the current
KGB to remove icons in Grodno cathedral
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D1127&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNElJECkzvG4zlqOsXxil-8bQxPrXQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
bishops executed by the Soviet secret police. The bishops were among more
than 1,000 New Martyrs formally canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church
(Moscow Patriarchate) in August 2000.
However, pressure to remove the icons from Grodno cathedral has continued
up till now. On 10 April 2021, pro-government videobloggers posted a video
on YouTube attacking Archbishop Artemy for commissioning the icons, which
they described not as "icons" but as "pictures" which "emanate hatred".
Following Archbishop Artemy's removal and the arrival of his successor, the
Grodno diocese removed several priests seen as supporting the protests.
Among them was Fr Georgi Roy, priest of Grodno's Orthodox cathedral.
Fr Roy "is one of the few clergymen who openly expressed their grief over
the violence and lawlessness in the country", Christian Vision noted
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/category/other/en&source=gmail&ust=1627234816150000&usg=AFQjCNGakk_VNVLmDRKx9Cb94Lw5RN3_tw">https://www.belarus2020.churc
spoke about this not only on the internet, but also from the pulpit of the
cathedral. In addition, regular prayers were held in the cathedral for an
end to the terror and for peace in Belarus. As a sign of this and to
support the victims and their loved ones following the elections, the
cathedral's large bell sounded every hour."
Orthodox Church and KGB
The KGB secret police (which has retained the same name since the Soviet
period) keeps political opponents or perceived opponents under close
scrutiny. Among their targets are clergy and active members of a wide range
of religious communities and initiatives, human rights defenders told Forum
18. As part of this effort, the KGB is known to have visited and warned
religious leaders, including Orthodox priests.
The KGB's Fourth Chief Directorate controls civil society organisations,
including religious organisations, the Nic and Mike Telegram channel
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://t.me/nic_and_mike&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNGhq-6-XqXiShEhG3aikVdN01TgJQ">https://t.me/nic_and_mike) noted. (The channel reports on government
leaks.)
In one case, the Belarusian Orthodox Church is known in summer 2021 to have
given the regime the names of about 100 priests which it regarded as
disloyal to the regime, the Nic and Mike Telegram channel noted on 10 June.
It said the list included Fr Vladislav Bogomolnikov and Fr Aleksandr
Kukhta, who had led a service on the streets of Minsk to commemorate Roman
Bondarenko, a demonstrator beaten by unknown assailants in November 2020
and who died of his injuries shortly after his arrest.
In January 2021 the Belarusian Orthodox Church had removed Fr Kukhta from
office.
Targeting Catholic clergy
While the Belarusian Orthodox Church has removed or transferred many clergy
to punish them for their support or perceived support for the opposition to
Lukashenko, the state has moved against Catholic clergy and parishes.
On 2 September 2020 the Catholic bishop of Vitebsk was given one day's
notice that the regime was annulling permission for Polish priest Jerzy
Wilk to serve in his parish
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2602&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFs22teVIasmpc-qpaF0VInLlyE1w">https://www.forum18.org/archi
Wilk had served in Belarus since 2003. For many years the regime has
arbitrarily denied other foreign Catholic priests permission to work
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG71T2B9Y-fqJ6lcMb7uk3DO4-fcg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
priests invited by the Belarusian Orthodox Church were also denied
permission to work.
On 26 August 2020 Minsk's Catholic church of Saints Simon and Helena (the
Red Church) – which has a long-running property dispute with the regime
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2591&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNF4LRgCfltyozTCFrnkAYMre2Au3A">https://www.forum18.org/archi
OMON riot police (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2597&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNHVF_Fnht9vxPvvH93a6_lwIfermg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
about 100 anti-government protestors sheltering inside. The then-head of
the Catholic Church in Belarus, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, described
the 40-minute blockade as "illegal" and called on those responsible to be
punished.
On 31 August the regime refused to let Archbishop Kondrusiewicz, who is a
Belarusian citizen, return to his own country
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2597&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNHVF_Fnht9vxPvvH93a6_lwIfermg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
return only on 24 December
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2627&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFN9gehDCNiCBzqzoSeQNP6PCdISA">https://www.forum18.org/archi
January 2021.
In March, inspections began in Catholic churches in various parts of
Belarus after prosecutors launched a criminal case against the Union of
Poles, Christian Vision noted
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/category/other/en&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFJZARNrM3G1DVtR7jgdbtK6Imogw">https://www.belarus2020.churc
well as officials from local Ideology Departments at the request of
prosecutors, demanded reports from priests, catechetical plans and other
internal information about parish life.
On 1 July, police arrived at the parish in Rasony in the northern Vitebsk
Region of Fr Vyacheslav Barok. A caller who claimed to be the local police
chief told Fr Barok by phone that he needed to explain a photo he had
posted on Instagram of a demonstration against the regime. Police claimed
Fr Barok had taken the photo in the nearby town of Gorodok and that it
showed the children of parishioners from Vitebsk.
Prosecutors had begun an investigation into Fr Barok's YouTube and other
social media accounts in November 2020
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/monitoring&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG0ZYEy1ouJGvhRaLQBeecHE7LbBg">https://www.belarus2020.churc
was jailed on 3 December for 10 days. His offence was to have published on
Instagram a copy of a poster, Stop Lukashism!, by Belarusian artist
Vladimir Tsesler.
The photo, which had earlier been widely circulated on the internet, showed
a demonstration on 12 June 2021 in Poland not in Gorodok. Fr Barok himself
had not taken the photo, "so there was no event that could be qualified as
an offence", Christian Vision noted on 7 July
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/christian-vision-statement-viachaslau-barok&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNEgvAwH0ywo_pxemnDDK0IqRwKLjQ">https://www.belarus2020.churc
Police said they had opened a case against Fr Barok under Administrative
Code Article 24.23 ("Violation of the procedure for organising or
conducting a mass event or demonstration"). They summoned him for
questioning at the district police station. Police showed him prosecutor's
warrants to search the church, the priest's house and his living quarters.
Officers took his mobile phone. However, as the search warrants gave the
addresses of the church and his home incorrectly, officers could not search
them.
Rasony Prosecutor's Office official Sergei Olesko read him an official
warning from 25 June from First Deputy Prosecutor of Vitebsk Region Denis
Shapovalov about posting "extremist" materials on the internet. This was
despite "expert analyses" finding on 22 April that his posts contained no
"extremism". The official warning was therefore "unfounded and contradicted
the results of the expert analyses", Christian Vision noted.
"When I was read that formidable text," Fr Barok noted on his Telegram
channel on 4 July, "I had the impression that I was being accused of
extremism, incitement to hatred, propaganda of fascism, disrespect for the
state, slander of civil servants and false information about election
fraud, and even disrespect for Metropolitan Veniamin and disbelief in the
great victory that is celebrated on 9 May. I remember all this from memory
from what I heard, because I was not given anything, perhaps it was a
secret document."
Fr Barok was due to face an administrative hearing, originally set for 1
July 2021, on 4 July, according to the summons seen by Forum 18. After the
police released him on 4 July after five hours, Fr Barok fled to Poland.
This has left the Rasony parish without a priest.
Vitebsk Region Prosecutor's Office refused to put Forum 18 through to
Deputy Prosecutor Shapovalov in 23 July, insisting that regulations do not
allow prosecutors to be contacted by telephone.
Aleksandr Kazakevich, Rasony's Prosecutor, insisted that his office had not
initiated the action against Fr Barok. "The case was initiated in Gorodok,"
he told Forum 18 on 23 July. He noted that his official Olesko had read the
official warning to Fr Barok, but this had been prepared by Shapovalov.
Kazakevich claimed that Fr Barok was not given the text as: "The law
specifies that such documents are not to be handed over."
Prosecutor Kazakevich added that he had followed Fr Barok's account of the
case against him which he had posted on social media, as well as other
sermons and messages he had posted online. "My work requires me to read and
familiarise myself with these messages," Kazakevich told Forum 18. He
refused to comment on what he had thought of Fr Barok's messages against
state violence following the presidential election.
Banning a hymn
Lukashenko and his regime have tried to suppress the singing of the hymn
Mighty God in churches and elsewhere.
Mighty God (Mahutny Bozha in Belarusian) is a hymn based on a 1943 poem by
Natallia Arsiennieva and set to music in 1947 by Mikola Ravienski. It was
unsuccessfully proposed as a new national anthem in 1995, and has since
August 2020 often been sung by protestors against the regime's election
falsification and violence.
One of the accusations when the Belarusian Orthodox Church removed Artemy
as Archbishop of Grodno (see above) was that he had permitted the singing
of Mighty God. On 14 October 2020, soon after his appointment as
Patriarchal Exarch, Metropolitan Veniamin had banned singing the hymn,
describing it as a secular song which "divides people".
Archbishop Artemy noted that they had sung Mighty God "for years", but
"suddenly it is banned and is almost anti-church". "And in one of our
parishes, the children's group organised an Easter concert and sang Mighty
God, which was considered a state crime."
On 16 June 2021, the Minsk-Mogilev Catholic Archdiocese sent a message to
all priests, signed by Fr Roman Strashko, complaining of the state
instruction to hold prayers in all places of worship on 3 July. It also
posted the message on the Catholic.by website. Within less than three hours
the website announcement was changed to remove the complaint.
The revised message asked all priests "if the opportunity arises" to add
prayers for "unity and peace in our country, as well as a call that the
decisions taken today, in the 21st century, do not lead to that horror
which took place in the 20th century". It also encouraged priests at the
end of Mass on 3 July "to sing the hymn Mighty God, in which we will ask
Almighty God to save us and our land from all evil".
Speaking on 2 July, Lukashenko warned of those wanting "to crush our
sovereign state" and gather "in the sacred places of our statehood" under
the banner of the Nazis, according to the presidential website. "And
recently our media are writing more and more that in [Catholic] churches
they want to pray (tomorrow, not today) under 'Mighty God'. Let's see,
they'll get what for."
On 3 July, at a major pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine at Budslav, the
hymn Mighty God was not sung for the first time since the 1990s. "Before
the start of the Budslav festival," Christian Vision noted
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.belarus2020.churchby.info/category/other/en&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFJZARNrM3G1DVtR7jgdbtK6Imogw">https://www.belarus2020.churc
emerged that the authorities are putting pressure on the organisers not to
have the hymn sung." This meant that the hymn was not sung at any of the
four public Masses during the pilgrimage, it added.
Also on 3 July, pro-regime videobloggers visited Grodno's Catholic St
Francis Xavier Cathedral as "the White-Red-White demons promised to sing
the Nazi hymn 'Mighty God' in all Catholic churches". "According to my
sources," the pro-regime videobloggers added, prayers were said in the
cathedral for Lukashenko's death. "Unfortunately at that moment I wasn't
able to record the 'prayers', so all we have is simply the witness
testimony," they claimed. After about 40 minutes, a cathedral employee and
a priest politely asked the regime videobloggers to stop filming, but they
refused.
However, after Sunday Masses on 4 July, the priest and congregation of the
Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the capital Minsk sang the hymn
Mighty God. "Nasha Niva" newspaper (which the regime banned several days
later) posted a short video on its Telegram channel of the hymn being sung
at the end of one of the Masses.
After one of the 4 July Masses, police came to the Minsk Cathedral "with a
complaint that some norm of the law had been violated on account of the
prayer Mighty God", Bishop Yuri Kasabutsky wrote on his Facebook page on 6
July. "What exactly, they did not understand themselves.."
Bishop Kasabutsky asked: "So what's wrong with our favourite religious
hymn?" He added that the hymn "has become a prayer used in the worship of
Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants, and recently this hymn is sung by
people who do not identify with any religion". And he concluded: "Why can't
we sing "Mighty God"? A rhetorical question.."
An official of Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG71T2B9Y-fqJ6lcMb7uk3DO4-fcg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
office claimed to Forum 18 on 15 July that Rumak "has not said if it
[Mighty God] is banned or not". The official refused to discuss official
warnings not to sing the hymn, or the police raid on Minsk's Catholic
cathedral after it was sung there.
Who shouldn't churches pray for?
The regime is trying to prevent religious communities from publicly praying
for political prisoners.
Following his removal from office in July, Archbishop Artemy stated that
officials "are touring the dioceses" and speaking to Church people. "Even I
have heard that they are asked not to pray for those who are imprisoned,"
the Archbishop told Radio Free Europe. "Such prayers are forbidden so that
there is not the slightest dissent anywhere."
Pro-regime "prayer day"
Under a 2 February Council of Ministers Decree setting out events for 2021,
described as "the year of national unity", the Plenipotentiary for
Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG71T2B9Y-fqJ6lcMb7uk3DO4-fcg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
the "basic denominations" were tasked with organising an event on 2 July
entitled "All-Belarus prayer 'For Belarus!'". The date later appears to
have been changed to 3 July, a Saturday, marked as Independence Day.
The Decree also tasked religious organisations, the Plenipotentiary and
other organisations with organising and participating in various events
throughout 2021, including some to counter "extremism" and Nazism, and to
promote knowledge of "the role of Orthodoxy in the formation of Belarusian
statehood".
Plenipotentiary Rumak wrote to state organisations in June, in a letter
seen by Forum 18. He instructed them that, "with the aim of the widest
possible attraction of individuals to the given event", it was "desirable
to hold the all-Belarus prayer in the form of a morning service on Saturday
3 July 2021 in all [Orthodox] churches, [Catholic] churches, mosques and
synagogues of the traditional confessions of Belarus with the widest
attraction of believers, as well as representatives of the agencies of
state administration, society, culture and art".
Rumak added that letters had been sent to the leaders of the Belarusian
Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church's dioceses, the Jewish community and
the Muslim community instructing them to hold the 3 July services. Rumak's
letter to the Minsk-Mogilev Catholic Archdiocese, drafted by Andrei Aryaev
(the Head of the Religious Department) and sent on 11 June (seen by Forum
18), called for the diocese to hold morning services on 3 July "with a wide
attraction of believers" in all the diocese's churches.
On 23 July, Forum 18 was told by an official that Plenipotentiary Rumak
will not talk to Forum 18. "No comment," the official in Rumak's office
added before putting the phone down. Aryaev's phone went unanswered.
In the run-up to the 3 July "For Belarus" prayer day, Aleksei Lyakhnovich,
the first deputy Transport and Communications Ministry prepared a letter
for leaders of all relevant organisations. He repeated word for word the
instructions Rumak had issued in his letter.
Lyakhnovich instructed leaders of organisations under the Ministry's
jurisdiction "to organise the participation in this event of
representatives of organisations in accordance with their religious
affiliation".
The opposition Nexta group published the undated letter on its Telegram
channel on 17 June. Describing the instruction as "corralling" employees of
state enterprises to attend the prayers and noting that they should do so
"in accordance with their religious affiliation", it added: "And what about
atheists and agnostics?"
About 50 uniformed officials of the Emergency Situations Ministry attended
a service at Vitebsk's Assumption Orthodox cathedral on 3 July. A short
video of the service, posted by the Ministry the same day, does not appear
to show any laypeople taking part in the service.
Dmitry Korneyenko, an Orthodox Christian from Vitebsk, stated that the
regime was forcing state employees to attend Russian Orthodox prayers for
Belarus. He commented that state compulsion was necessary as trust by local
Orthodox Christians in their religious leaders had declined.
"The attendance at the prayer 'For Belarus', organised in Assumption
Cathedral, was few in number," Korneyenko noted on his Facebook page on 11
July. "Dozens of employees of the Emergency Situations Ministry of Vitebsk
Region were forcibly summoned to provide an image of large numbers
attending."
Asked on 23 July about whether attendance had been voluntary at the prayer
service in the Orthodox Cathedral, Denis Zakharov, head of personnel at
Vitebsk City Emergency Situations Department, asked Forum 18 to call back
in five minutes. Called back, he refused to discuss anything and referred
all questions to the press secretary of the Regional branch of the
Ministry, Zofiya Glinskaya. However, her number went unanswered each time
Forum 18 called on 23 July.
Asked on 15 July why the regime had ordered religious communities to hold
prayers for Belarus on 3 July, an official of the Plenipotentiary's Office
told Forum 18: "There were no orders. You have distorted information."
State officials frequently issue orders to Orthodox leaders. On 10 June,
the deputy head of the Ideology and Youth Work Main Department of Grodno
Regional Executive Committee, Sergei Shumeiko, wrote to Orthodox Bishop
Porfiry (Prednyuk) of Lida instructing him to arrange for church bells in
his diocese to be rung just after midday on 22 June to commemorate the 80th
anniversary of the Nazi German attack on the Soviet Union.
"We ask you to inform us the Main Department by 16 June 2021 of decisions
taken, indicating which churches will take part in this action," Shumeiko's
letter – seen by Forum 18 – instructs Bishop Porfiry. In a handwritten
note on the letter, the bishop instructs local clergy to carry out the
instruction.
Vladimir Skripko, the head of the Religious Department who drafted
Shumeiko's letter, denied that it was an instruction. "No one has to do
anything," Skripko insisted to Forum 18 from Grodno on 23 July. "They could
agree or not agree – it was only a proposal." The official refused to
discuss anything else and put the phone down.
Regime's "unreal" claims that independent Orthodox church planned
The regime has long obstructed the functioning of any Orthodox Churches
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG71T2B9Y-fqJ6lcMb7uk3DO4-fcg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
Belarusian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. Although
individual parishes of various Orthodox jurisdictions function without
state registration, the numbers of people involved have remained small.
There have been no serious proposals to try to create an autocephalous
(independent) Orthodox Church under the direct authority of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate. Archbishop Artemy rejected the idea, which Lukashenko has
claimed is being planned, describing the idea as "unreal". "People here did
not even speak of any autocephalous church, as in Ukraine," he told Radio
Free Europe on 13 June. "This question is not yet ripe even for discussion.
This is speculation and false accusation."
Yet speaking to clergy during a visit to the Orthodox monastery at
Zhirovichi near Slonim in western Belarus on 25 June, Lukashenko criticised
what he claimed was "an attempt to destroy Orthodoxy in Belarus".
"Letters went to Constantinople [Istanbul, where the Ecumenical
Patriarchate is located], to our Patriarch (he told me about this), and
even here we already see this turn," Lukashenko told the clergy. He said he
had instructed Natalya Kochanova, speaker of the upper chamber of
parliament, "to make contact between the state, the country's leadership
and the bishop [Metropolitan Veniamin]", apparently to prevent the
emergence of any such autocephalous Church.
"Unfortunately, the churches were also connected to this. There was an
attempt to connect almost all Catholic people, and many succumbed to it.
And we had certain vacillations among the Orthodox, with which both the
bishop [Metropolitan Veniamin] and the Belarusian Orthodox Church have
dealt with today."
Forum 18 tried to find out what role Lukashenko had given Kochanova.
However, an assistant to Speaker Kochanova told Forum 18 on 23 July that
both she and her press secretary were out that day on a work trip.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) / Council of
Europe Venice Commission Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious
or Belief Communities
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/9/9/139046.pdf&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG-7xo9W5WmjKbvoNzt6_wm9ftlrw">https://www.osce.org/files/f/
international human rights law: "The freedom to practise and teach religion
or belief includes, but is not limited to, acts integral to the conduct by
religious groups of their basic affairs, such as the right to organize
themselves according to their own hierarchical and institutional
structures."
The Guidelines also note that "states should observe their obligations by
ensuring that national law leaves it to the religious or belief community
itself to decide on its leadership." (END)
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?query%3D%26religion%3Dall%26country%3D16&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFjCQ8jjzKp5xL8DLrwrheVLPcbqQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
For more background, see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom survey
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D2612&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNG71T2B9Y-fqJ6lcMb7uk3DO4-fcg">https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
(https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id%3D1351&source=gmail&ust=1627234816151000&usg=AFQjCNFTFNSZCXKmjoG3GgL7KdL8PpxoIQ">https://www.forum18.org/archi
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