Ukraine: Catholic Priests Still Missing After Nine Months
On the 16th of November, 2022, two Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priests, Ivan Levytsky and Bohdan Heletta were taken prisoner by Russian troops in Berdjansk, south-east Ukraine, currently under Russian occupation. Since then, nothing has been heard of them. Maksym Rjabucha, auxiliary bishop: "Despite the prayers, protests and efforts of the Catholic Church, there is still no news about them."
The two priests were accused by the Russian troops of owning weapons and dynamite and planning a "terrorist act." Sviatoslav Shevchuk, archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church says that the Russians hid "certain military objects" in the parish church of Bardjansk in order to accuse the priests. According to bishop Meniok of the diocese of Donetsk, "by the time the church and the parish house was searched, the priests were already in prison." Shevchuk accuses the Russian troops of torturing the priests whilst in prison. On top of this, one of the priests suffers from diabetes.
The two priests had voluntarily stayed in the occupied city. They had served the Catholic community there "to give people some hope", according to Shevchuk. The priests, members of the order of the Redemptorists, were some of the few Catholic religious active in the occupied region.
Sources: IDEA, Erzdiozese Wien, Evangelischen Allianz Deutschland, Domradio.de
Photo by Serhii Tyaglovsky on Unsplash