Huliaka: Certain priests from Poland carry out political activity in Belarus

Commissioner on religious and ethnic affairs Leanid Huliaka brought accusations against foreign priests.

He explained why they had been prohibited from working in Belarus at a meeting to discuss the work of state bodies responsible for religious and ethnic affairs in 2014 and plans for 2015, BelTA reports.

“Certain Catholic priests from Poland try to carry out political activity. They don't like our country, our laws and our authorities. We do not prolong their stay in the country in such cases. We are not against inviting foreign priests. The doors of Orthodox, Catholic and other churches should not be locked. But we stress that they should only deal with the issues for which they were invited to the country. They should do what they came for and signed contracts with religious organisations,” Leanid Huliaka noted.

The commissioner on religious and ethnic affairs says that more than 430 priests work in 491 parishes of the Roman Catholic Church in Belarus. 113 priests are foreign citizens, most of them come from Poland. In 2002, 202 foreigners worked in Catholic churches. The state calls on the Catholic church to decrease the number of foreign priests, taking into account that four Catholic educational institutions work in the country.

“By the way, only 27 people study in the seminary in Hrodna and 19 people in Pinsk. Two and three students respectively were enrolled in 2014. I have the impression that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church is not interested in educating their staff,” Leanid Huliaka noted.