Statement of the Christian Vision Group of the Coordination Council regarding the Persecution of Fr Viachaslau Barok

December 3, 2020

Fr Viachaslau Barok, a Roman Catholic priest of St Josaphat Kuntsevych parish in Rasony (Viciebs voblasc, Belarus), a member of the Christian Vision group, was sentenced to ten days of arrest by the Rasony district court on 3 December 2020. Bishop of Vitebsk, Aleh Butkevich, and Fr Viktor Zhuk SJ, as well as Rasony parishioners, attended the court hearing in support of the priest.

The reason for the prosecution was sharing on Instagram a poster, Stop Lukashism!, posted by Fr Barok on 17 August 2020. According to the court, this constituted an offence under the Article 17.10 «Propaganda and (or) public demonstration, production and (or) the spread of Nazi symbols or paraphernalia” of the Code of the Administrative Offences of the Republic of Belarus.

The original author of the poster, a well-known Belarusian artist and member of the Belarusian Union of Artists, Vladimir Tsesler, stated that his work had «an explicit anti-fascist character.» Fr Barok accompanied the publication of Tsesler’s work with the comments clearly indicating that the modified Nazi symbols, although present in the image, were used there in an entirely negative and critical manner. The text accompanying the publication had an anti-totalitarian character. Judging the anti-Nazi and anti-totalitarian publication as propaganda of Nazi symbols and applying such a serious administrative penalty as arrest against the priest, the court committed an act of cynical mockery of law and justice and violated the right to an impartial and fair trial.

We see in this court decision an act of prosecution of the Catholic priest and video blogger for his publically expressed civil and Christian position as a theologian and pastor. The local law enforcement agencies of Rasony started applying pressure on Fr Viachaslau Barok about a month ago. On 12 November, he was summoned to the Rasony District Department of the Investigative Committee where he was informed of an investigation initiated against him by the Prosecutor’s Office concerning Fr Barok’s publications on social media. The investigating authorities also surveyed the parishioners in Rasony about the content of Fr Barok’s sermons.

Fr Viachaslau Barok is a well-respected clergyman in Belarus. He actively uses social media for preaching. His YouTube channel has almost three thousand followers. He regularly posts short video sermons and reflections on the social teaching of the Catholic Church and current events in Belarus in the light of the Gospel and Christian conscience. In recent months, he has extensively commented on the latest Encyclical of Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti.

This persecution of the priest is politically motivated and violates his constitutional rights to freedom of conscience and freedom of expression (Articles 31 and 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus), which are also guaranteed by international commitments of the Republic of Belarus, in particular, Art. 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include … freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching”; and Art. 19 of the said Covenant: “1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference. 2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice. «

We state our resolute disagreement with the persecution of Fr Viachaslau Barok by the law enforcement agencies and the arbitrariness towards him.

We warmly welcome the solidarity of the Roman Catholic clergy in the Republic of Belarus with their fellow priest, as well as the solidarity showed by the parishioners towards their pastor. We call on the Belarusian and international community to solidarity with the Fr Viachaslau Barok.

Photo: Volha Davydzienka