Source: www.forum18.org
Date: March 8, 2023
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Olga Glace, Forum 18
Some Catholic religious communities face problems using and reclaiming from
the regime ownership of their historical places of worship, and the regime
has recently terminated unlimited and free of charge rental agreements with
at least four Catholic churches, Forum 18 has found. The regime has claimed
to the churches that, in exchange for signing a new agreement to pay
monthly rent for periods varying between 6 months and 5 years, at some
point in the future the churches will be allowed to return to using their
historical buildings rent-free.
A Catholic close to Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, says that the parish
has to pay monthly rent for using the church for a year to ensure an
agreement on free of charge usage in the future. "We were told that if we
don't sign the new agreement, the church will be given to the museum which
would charge an entrance fee, while we'll be allowed to worship there only
once a week," the Catholic told Forum 18 (see below).
Local authorities set the monthly rent, but Forum 18 was unable to find out
how they decide the amount they demand. Also, no written guarantees seem to
exist that the regime will honour its promise to at some future point allow
churches to return to using their own historical buildings rent-free (see
below).
Officials seem unwilling to make public the conditions they have imposed on
Catholic communities for using their own historical places of worship,
including the Co-Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
St Stanislaus in Mogilev and the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the
Virgin Mary in Bobruisk. Svetlana Grinevetskaya of Bobruisk's Lenin
District Executive Committee refused to explain why the Executive Committee
is now charging rent or why the church cannot be returned to its original
owner - the parish. "I do not know you and will not give you comments," she
told Forum 18 before putting the phone down (see below).
Only a few historical places of worship – some but not all Catholic -
remain in the state's possession, as communities did not request their
return in the 1990s. Subsequently, many of these religious communities have
repeatedly but unsuccessfully applied for ownership to be restored to them.
In these cases, the state pays for continued maintenance of the building,
and the religious community which uses the building pays an amount to the
state as rent and for utility charges. There is no time limit for how long
these agreements continue.
Minsk's Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally due to its
brickwork as the Red Church) has been closed by the regime to Catholic
parishioners who want to pray, and attend Mass and other religious services
since a suspicious early-morning fire in September 2022. The authorities
later cut off electricity, heating and running water in the adjacent
priest's house (see below).
Andrei Aryayev of the Religious Department of the Office of the
Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs claimed to Forum 18 in
January that the parish will again be allowed to use the Red Church "When
repairs are finished", which he claimed would be "In the near future".
Yekaterina Kaverina of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology and
Religious Affairs Department insisted to Forum 18 on 6 March that repair
works have already started. However, she could not say when the parish will
be able to resume using its own Church for worship (see below).
Catholic journalist Maksim Hacak suggested to Forum 18 in August 2020
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
are not now willing to transfer ownership back as "it's always easier to
blackmail the communities using property they do not own".
Many communities without formal places of worship find it impossible to get
property redesignated so that it can legally be used for worship. Without a
designated place of worship, the legal exercise of freedom of religion and
belief requires advance state permission. Officials often refuse this
permission. Protestant communities are among those which have found it
impossible to get property redesignated so that it can be used for worship
in line with the law.
One such Protestant Church is Minsk's New Life Pentecostal Church. On 17
February, the Church marked two years since the authorities forcibly
evicted it from its place of worship, which they never allowed to be
redesignated for religious use. They subsequently banned the Church from
meeting for worship in the church car park, fining church leaders.
Yekaterina Kaverina of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology and
Religious Affairs Department refused to respond when Forum 18 asked whether
the authorities will compensate the Church for its building from which they
evicted it (see below).
Members of the regime-supporting Belarusian Orthodox Church
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
any problems connected with paying rent for using historical buildings. For
example, the Pinsk Diocese spokesperson told Forum 18 that churches owned
by the state are given to parishes on a free of charge basis. "A local
administration finances repair works, but the parish has to coordinate the
works with the authorities," the spokesperson told Forum 18 on 24 February.
Minsk: Suspicious Red Church fire, attempts to evict priest
Minsk's Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally due to its
brickwork as the Red Church) has been closed by the regime to Catholic
parishioners who want to pray, and attend Mass and other religious services
there since an early-morning fire on 26 September 2022. The fire broke out
in the sacristy, an annexe to the Red Church. The authorities immediately
closed and sealed the Church.
Katolik.life noted on 27 September 2022 that two windows were found to have
been broken at the entrance close to where the fire broke out, and that
OMON riot police had closed off the square three hours before the fire.
Parishioners told Katolik.life that, according to the Church watchman,
"before the smoke appeared in the church, a rumble was heard". The
Investigative Committee arrived practically together with the Emergency
Situations Ministry, which parishioners described as "strange and
ambiguous" (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Investigators took away computers and video surveillance recordings,
Katolik.life also noted. (The equipment was returned on 25 January 2023
after repeated appeals by the parish.) The parish has not been give access
to information about the course of the investigation. The parish has –
without success - sent a request to the Investigative Committee to provide
information on the results.
Both Moscow District Police and the Investigative Committee refused to
discuss with Forum 18 the suspicious circumstances of the fire
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
the investigation.
On 5 October 2022, Minsk Heritage, the building agency that has control of
the Church, ordered the parish to remove all its property from the entire
building by 12 October. Officials have given no timetable for the repairs
they claim to be undertaking
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
On 29 November 2022, Minsk Archdiocese appointed Fr Yuri Sanko as parish
administrator to manage the construction works and to communicate with the
authorities, while the parish priest Fr Vladislav Zavalnyuk works as the
caretaker while the regime does not allow the Church to function. Many
parishioners have continued to meet for worship in the priest's house next
to the church.
The regime made unsuccessful attempts to evict parish priest Fr Zavalnyuk
from his house by switching off the electricity and heating, and later
cutting off running water. The authorities claimed that the parish house is
connected to the church building where the utility lines were it claimed
switched off.
Moscow District Administration's Emergency Situations Department also –
allegedly for fire safety reasons - then ordered Fr Zavalnyuk to dismantle
a fireplace in his house which he used for cooking, parish website
chyrvony.by stated.
Moscow District Administration's Emergency Situations Department did not
answer its phone when Forum 18 called repeatedly on 6 and 7 March to ask
why it was forcing Fr Zavalnyuk to live in such conditions.
The regime has also repeatedly rejected appeals over many years to hand the
Church of Saints Simon and Helena back to the Catholic community. Minsk
Heritage, an agency owned by the city administration, has been in dispute
with the parish over large financial demands from the state
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
did not agree to and which it cannot afford. "Why should we pay the state
13,000 Belarusian Roubles a month to pray in our own church?" the
then-parish priest Fr Stanislav Stanevsky asked independent news agency
Naviny.by in July 2020. City officials refused to explain to Forum 18 the
large sums they have demanded (see below).
Minsk: Why is regime still stopping Red Church parish using its own church?
In an 8 January letter to Sergei Aleinik, Foreign Minister (and former
ambassador to the Vatican), parishioners wrote of the continuing enforced
closure of Minsk's Red Church as causing "pain in their hearts".
Minsk Heritage, which has control of the Church, has allowed priests and
some parishioners inside the church to inspect the damage only twice since
the September 2022 suspicious fire. On 19 December 2022 the church was
inspected by a number of Catholic clergy, including Apostolic Nuncio Ante
Jozić, Archbishop of Minsk-Mogilev Iosif Staneuski, Parish Administrator
Yuri Sanko and parish priest Vladislav Zavalnyuk. On 14 February 2023 Minsk
Heritage allowed a parish committee to go inside the church.
The priests and parishioner found that in the main part of the Church there
is no sign of the fire and no smell of smoke, and that the sacristy is only
slightly damaged. "It is warm in the church, the radiators are warm –
while in all the letters received from the state institutions we were told
that there was no heating," priests told chyrvony.by after the 19 December
2022 visit. The Church is "clean and warm with many fresh flowers, and is
available for worship", they said.
The parish is ready to pay for the repair of the sacristy – even though
it appears that it was not responsible for the fire.
On 4 January 2023, Forum 18 asked Andrei Aryayev, the Head of the Religious
Department of the Office of the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic
Affairs (https://www.forum18.org/archi
when the Red Church parish will be allowed to use its building. He replied:
"When repairs are finished." When Forum 18 asked when that would be, he
replied: "In the near future." Aryayev refused to give any indication of
the timescale, insisting this is a matter for Minsk City Executive
Committee.
On 7 February, Minsk Heritage also refused to say when the Red Church
parish will be allowed to use its own Church, and when repairs will be
complete. The secretary of the Director of Minsk Heritage, Aleksandr
Kokhan, refused to answer the questions and also refused to put Forum 18
through to Kokhan. "You should send us an official inquiry and we will
answer," she claimed before hanging up.
The Deputy Head of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology and Religious
Affairs Department, Yekaterina Kaverina, insisted to Forum 18 on 6 March
that repair works on the Red Church have already started. However, she
could not say when the Catholic parish will be able to resume using its own
Church for worship. She refused to explain why electricity, heating and
running water were cut off to the priest's house. "All the answers were
given to the parish," she claimed.
In response to repeated appeals from the Red Church parish, the Deputy Head
of Minsk City Executive Committee Artyom Tsuran replied to the parish in a
letter dated 13 February (seen by Forum 18). Tsuran claimed that the ban on
using the Church is imposed by Moscow District Emergency Situations
Department. "These measures have been taken to ensure the safety of people
coming to the church, and the preservation of this complex of buildings
under state protection," Tsuran claimed.
Tsuran also claimed that as heating, electricity and water are (against the
evidence of priests and parishioners) shut off in the building, "the
fulfilment of obligations between the enterprise [Minsk Heritage] and the
community under the free of charge rent agreement is impossible in these
premises".
Minsk: Why can't parish own its own church?
Minsk Catholics have repeatedly asked the regime to return the Red Church
to them. The Catholic parish built the Church in 1910, but it was
confiscated during the Soviet period. The latest refusal was in June 2020.
On 21 July 2020, Red Church parishioners launched a petition asking the
Presidential Administration to return ownership
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
the parish, and reiterating that the Church was built and owned by the
parish. More than 5,000 people had signed within the first week.
On 4 January 2023, Aryayev of the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic
Affairs (https://www.forum18.org/archi
refused to explain to Forum 18 why the Red Church and the other Catholic
churches still in state hands cannot be handed back to their original
owners. Arayayev insisted that "They have the right to use them," before
putting the phone down.
Minsk Heritage on 7 February also would not explain why it is unilaterally
imposing a large bill
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
return the Church built by Catholics to Catholics.
Nesvizh: "If we don't sign new agreement, church will be given to museum"
The authorities have imposed a new agreement requiring the Catholic parish
to pay rent to use its Corpus Christi Church in the town of Nesvizh, 95 kms
(60 miles) south west of Minsk. A person familiar with the situation told
Forum 18 that the parish has been asked to pay Nesvizh Executive Committee
a monthly rent for using the church for five years, to ensure free of
charge use from sometime in the future.
"We were told that if we don't sign the new agreement, the church will be
given to the museum which would charge an entrance fee, while we'll be
allowed to worship there only once a week," a Catholic close to the parish
told Forum 18 on 22 February. The parish has already asked Minsk Region
Executive Committee to reduce the rent period to less than five years.
Corpus Christi Church is part of the Architectural, Residential and
Cultural Complex of the Radziwill Family at Nesvizh, included in UNESCO's
World Heritage List. In 1944, the church suffered war damage, but was
restored by parishioners. In 1948 the Soviet authorities – which had
annexed the area from Poland during the Second World War - allowed the
parish to use the church free of charge without time limit.
The Catholic confirmed that restoration works ongoing in the church since
2011 are financed from the Republican and Minsk Region budgets. "I don't
know when the repair works will be over, for this year we have funds, but I
assure you that the church has never been closed for 400 years," the
Catholic told Forum 18.
"Paying the first month is always hard," the Catholic commented. The
Catholic has noticed that parishioners resent the new demand to pay rent.
"It is not the state which built the church, and it is not the state which
preserved and maintained it, so why should we pay now?"
The Catholic noted, however, that the authorities do not charge for
electricity at the higher rate for legal entities. The parish pays at the
lower rate levied on religious organisations, which is much closer to the
rate paid by individuals.
Forum 18 was unable to find out why the church is being charged the monthly
rent and why the parish cannot own its own church. The head of the Ideology
Department of Nesvizh Executive Committee, Lyudmila Vitko, put the phone
down when Forum 18 called on 23 February.
The Head of the State Property Registration Department of Minsk Region
Executive Committee, Aleksandr Semenkevich, explained to Forum 18 on 7
March that his Department merely registers religious buildings but does not
own them.
Bobruisk: Rent now, free of charge usage later?
Catholics in the south-eastern town of Bobruisk are trying to restore the
Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which was built in
1903. It was confiscated during the Soviet period, and in the 1960s its
bell tower was demolished to be replaced by a five-storey modern building
attached to and across the Church's entrance.
A joint stock company owned the Soviet-era five-storey building, while the
city Executive Committee owns the church building. They have taken no
action to stop water flooding the basement, or to restore the Church to its
historical appearance
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
In 2018 the Soviet-era five-storey building was taken over by the city
Executive Committee which owns the church building. Parishioners wanted to
acquire the Soviet building and restore the entire church but, as parish
priest Fr Andrei Yarkovets told the local news agency Commercial Courier in
March 2019, the parish was worried that it could not afford the costs
involved. He insisted that the authorities should pay for the demolition of
the 1960s building.
"The last time negotiations with the authorities took place was in 2019,
and since then there's no movement," a parishioner who wished to be
anonymous told Forum 18 in July 2020
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Since January 2023, the Catholic parish has been paying rent for using
their Church for a six-month period with the promise of then getting five
years of free of charge usage.
The Vicar General of Minsk-Mogilev diocese, Fr Aleksandr Yashevsky, says
that the church will remain the property of the city and the parish will
pay rent. "Our next step will be to apply for the ownership of the church
building, which was constructed and restored by the Catholics," he told the
Polish-based broadcaster Belsat on 21 January.
Svetlana Grinevetskaya, Economic Affairs Manager of Bobruisk's Lenin
District Executive Committee, refused to explain why the Executive
Committee is now charging rent or why the church cannot be returned to its
original owner - the parish. "I do not know you and will not give you
comments," she told Forum 18 on 24 February before putting the phone down.
Mogilev: Rent now, free of charge usage later?
The state owns the Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and St Stanislaus in the eastern city of Mogilev. Fr Yuri Sanko
of the Catholic Bishops' Conference told Forum 18 in 2020 that the parish
pays Mogilev Executive Committee utilities charges and a nominal rent
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
the parish finances all restoration works.
After paying the rent for a year, the parish community has been promised a
five-year agreement to use the Cathedral free of charge.
The phones of the Deputy Head of the Ideology and Youth Department of
Mogilev City Executive Committee, Irina Stolyarova, and of the Head of the
Department's Ideology Section, Oleg Koropov, went unanswered when Forum 18
called on 6 and 7 March to find out whether the Executive Committee gave
the church a written promise that it would be able to use the Cathedral
free of charge after the parish has completed the rental period.
Minsk: "Exactly two years ago .. we were forcibly evicted from our church
building"
Minsk City Executive Committee refuses to return the church building seized
from the city's New Life Pentecostal Church or allow the Church to meet for
worship in the car park. The Church continues to hold meetings online or in
other churches' premises.
"Exactly two years ago (17 February 2021) we were forcibly evicted from our
church building," the Church wrote on its Telegram channel on 17 February.
"Looking back, I want to thank God, He did not leave us, but on the
contrary was with us and strengthened us."
The Deputy Head of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology and Religious
Affairs Department, Yekaterina Kaverina, refused to respond when Forum 18
asked on 6 March whether the authorities will compensate New Life Church
for its building from which they evicted it in February 2021.
On 25 September 2022, police banned New Life Church from meeting for Sunday
worship in the car park
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
which officials forcibly evicted it in February 2021
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Church's pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko and another pastor Antoni Bokun. A
judge fined each two months' average wage for leading the 18 September 2022
service in the church's car park
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
observed. (END)
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