Catholic Priest in Belarus Reportedly Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

Belarusian authorities have sentenced a Catholic priest to three years in prison for alleged promotion of extremist activities, according to reports. The independent portal katolik.life published the verdict, citing church members. The court also reportedly imposed a fine equivalent to 680 euros on the priest, Anatol Parachnewitsch, 66, who reportedly intends to appeal.

His Archdiocese of Minsk did not know what exactly he had been accused of, the report said. The trial took place in October with the public excluded.

Belarusian human rights organizations have counted Parachnewitsch since June among the more than 887 political prisoners in the country. After his arrest in mid-March, there had been fears that he would be charged with high treason. Instead, the court reportedly convicted him of insulting a representative of state authority and promoting extremist activities. His parish is in a village in the Minsk countryside.

The Belarusian authorities regularly take harsh action against the Catholic Church, to which around ten percent of the country’s population of about 9.5 million belong. At the end of 2024 and in spring 2025, two Catholic friars were sentenced to eleven and 13 years in a labor camp. A few weeks after a meeting in Minsk between Curia Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti and the long-serving leader Aliaksandr Lukashenko, both men were pardoned in November 2025, but they had to leave the country.

According to the Belarusian group Christian Vision, 17 Roman Catholic priests have already had to end their work in the country this year because the religious authority did not extend their work permits. Many of them come from neighboring Poland.

The Greek Catholic Church, which is connected to Rome, is also being suppressed. Christian Vision reports that the authorities ordered the dissolution of four of the 16 Greek Catholic parishes in Belarus after they refused re-registration. Any activity of the dissolved parishes is now illegal and punishable.

Apparently out of fear of further repression, neither the Roman nor the Greek Catholic Church is commenting on the authorities’ current actions.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)