2 Catholic priests freed in Belarus after visit of papal envoy to the country

(OSV News) -- Two Belarusian Catholic priests listed as political prisoners of the regime were freed Nov. 20, following the October visit of papal envoy to the country.

Oblate Father Andrzej Juchniewicz, chairman of Major Superiors, Delegates and Representatives of Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Father Henrykh Akalatovich, an elderly and unwell parish rector from Valožyn, were freed Nov. 20, according to the Belarusan Catholic bishops' conference, as reported by Vatican News.

The news came as a direct consequence of Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti's October visit to the country on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Diocese of Pinsk. Cardinal Gugerotti is prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches and was apostolic nuncio to Belarus from 2011 to 2015.

"We welcome the visit to Belarus of the High Representative of Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, in October 2025, and the agreements reached. He is a long-time friend of the Republic of Belarus who has done much for the Catholic Church in our country, as well as for the development of state-Church and interreligious dialogue," Belarus' Catholic bishops wrote in the Nov. 20 statement.

The statement said that Cardinal Gugerotti's visit provided "an important result of which was the decision of the President of the Republic of Belarus, as an expression of mercy and respect for the Pope, to pardon and release from prison Catholic priests serving prison sentences," the statement said about the pardon granted by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

"The Catholic Church in Belarus welcomes the country's positive trends in the international order, the resumption of dialogue between the Republic of Belarus and the United States, and the strengthening of contacts with the Vatican," the statement said.

Cardinal Gugerotti told Vatican News that the release of priests is the result of the Holy See's approach: "The Holy See rejoices when others open doors so that people can meet in person."

He emphasized that a willingness to dialogue is the most effective recipe for both interpersonal and political relationships: "I don't talk to you, I don't see you" tactics are ineffective, the cardinal stressed, according to Vatican News.

Ruslan Szoszyn, a Belarusian journalist living in Poland for almost two decades, told OSV News in October that "if the Vatican actually intervenes in these matters, Lukashenko's regime will have no arguments -- it will have to release the priests." In a Nov. 21 conversation with OSV News, Szoszyn said that releasing the priests can be "of course" seen as "a success for the church, because despite everything, these people were unjustly convicted on completely false charges, solely because of their steadfastness, and simply because the system didn't break them."

He said however that that success must have come with a hidden cost.

"It's worth remembering that most priests in Belarus, the vast majority, are afraid of Lukashenko's regime, afraid to say anything. They also refrain from commenting in any way during sermons," on the social reality of the country, he emphasized.

After 31 years in power, Lukashenko began a seventh term as president in January, when he claimed 86.8% of votes. Dozens of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant clergy have faced arrest since August 2020, when Lukashenko's previous disputed reelection was followed by massive protests, international sanctions, and the flight of half a million citizens abroad.

Father Juchniewicz, released from prison Nov. 20, was sentenced to 13 years in April at a closed trial when his charge of unspecified "subversive activities" was changed to "criminal offenses" involving sex with minors. Father Akalatovich began 11 years in the penal colony in April for "high treason."

Szoszyn stressed that the friendly tone of the official press statements about the release derives from the approach that the "church thinks about what will happen in a thousand years" and that what is at stake is "the survival of the (Catholic) Church in Belarus."

The friendly tone of the statement comes from the fact that "the church links the immediate future of Belarus with Lukashenko's regime, and yet there's this clear suggestion that political matters, those matters related to human rights and freedom, are somehow, I would say, on the other side of this barricade," Szoszyn told OSV News.

Lukashenko had good relations with Pope Leo's predecessors, particularly with Pope Francis, Szoszyn said, "and often treated this relationship as a gateway" to the West.

"These relationships allowed Lukashenko -- maybe not to escape isolation -- but at least to pretend that Lukashenko is not completely isolated in the West, simply because the church has always been associated with the West, so Lukashenko treats it as a truly great propaganda and political success that the church thanks him for such gestures of mercy."

While it was a joy that the outspoken priests supporting freedom in Belarus have been freed, Szoszyn recalled, the most prominent group of political prisoners -- many of them Catholics -- is still behind bars.

Among them is Ales Bialiatski, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. His supporters have urged Western church leaders to take up his cause four years after he was detained and jailed in Belarus on trumped-up charges.

"I'd be so grateful if Western Catholics, who aren't constrained by diplomatic considerations, could help draw attention to his sufferings and pressure their governments to act," Natalia Pinchuk, Bialiatski's wife, told OSV News in September.

Another Catholic political prisoner, Andrzej Poczobut, has been named laureate of the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to be awarded by the European Parliament Dec. 16.

Poczobut, who was raised in a traditional Catholic home, is an essayist, blogger and activist from the Polish minority in Belarus. Known for his outspoken criticism of the Lukashenko regime and for his writings on history and human rights, he has been arrested many times, but now has been detained since 2021 and sentenced to eight years in a penal colony.

Their release however, Szoszyn told OSV News, is a "much more difficult" issue. "I don't think Lukashenko will decide to release key political prisoners," he told OSV News. "These people are considered a threat to his regime, but he also considers them his most valuable commodity when it comes to his trade with the West -- because Lukashenko uses political prisoners to engage in such trade, to lift sanctions, to ease restrictions," imposed on his country, he said.

Father Grzegorz Gawel, a 27-year-old Carmelite from Krakow's Basilica of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Poland, detained Sept. 4 in a parking lot at Lepel, near Vitebsk, and accused of collecting information about "Zapad-2025," a Russian-Belarusian military exercise, remains imprisoned and is among 1257 Belarusian inmates currently recognized by human rights groups as political prisoners, with over 300 others facing arrest in recent years.

In a Nov. 20 commentary, Belarus's opposition-linked Christian Vision said the Vatican's newly appointed apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Ignazio Ceffalia, and the bishops' conference chairman, Archbishop Iosif Staneuski, had both played a "direct part" in the release of the priests.

It added that the pardoning of both priests for "serious crimes against the state" confirmed that the "nonpolitical charges" brought against Father Juchniewicz for alleged sexual abuse had, in reality, been "fabricated."