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March 29, 2024By Gina Christian, OSV News
(OSV News) -- Russia's government has sanctioned three Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops and a Catholic layman in Canada for supporting Ukraine, where the Catholic Church has come under increased persecution following Russia's full-scale invasion since 2022.
The March 22 decree appeared to be in retaliation for sanctions Canada's government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has levied against various Russian officials and oligarchs for the war.
Deriding Canada's government as a "patron of the pro-Nazi Kiev regime," the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement accused 56 Canadians of being among those who are "complicit in supplying the Armed Forces of Ukraine with arms and ... actively participate in the Russophobic campaign fuelled by the authorities." Russia falsely labels Ukraine as "Nazi" as part of its internal and external propaganda, regardless of Ukraine having a Jewish president, who lost family in the Holocaust, and a democratically-elected government.
Among those listed in the March 22 announcement as permanently barred entry into Russia are Metropolitan Archbishop Lawrence Huculak of the Archeparchy of Winnipeg, Manitoba; Bishop Bryan Bayda of the Eparchy of Toronto; and Bishop David Motiuk of the Eparchy of Edmonton, Alberta.
Also included was layman Eugene Roman, who told OSV News he was incorrectly listed as chair of the North American-based Ukrainian Catholic University Foundation, since his term ended in 2023.
"Best I can figure, the Russians are working (from) an old list of who's who," Roman told OSV News.
"I suspect I was sanctioned by Russia for supporting Catholic education in Ukraine, Canada and the U.S.," Roman said.
Bishop Motiuk told OSV News he was "completely surprised and bewildered by the notice," adding that "one can only guess at the rationale behind the movement."
"Am I sanctioned for claiming to be a proud Ukrainian when certain others claim that there is no such thing as Ukraine and Ukrainians? If so, I am guilty," said Bishop Motiuk. "Am I sanctioned for raising awareness of the plight of millions in Ukraine affected by the war by calling for pastoral support and humanitarian aid in donating food, water, shelter, clothing and medical supplies for displaced persons, the elderly and the sick? If so, I am guilty.
"Finally, am I sanctioned for praying for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere throughout the world? If so, I am also guilty," he added.
"I serve my Catholic community doing whatever it takes to make a difference," Roman said. "The fact that the Russians have chosen to sanction someone who has supported the Catholic Church in many ways seen and unseen for decades highlights the perils of a totalitarian regime which does not respect rule of law and which practices rule by force.
"I pray that the Russian people will wake up one day soon and realize what they have allowed their leaders to do both to them and others," he said.
The Kyiv-based Institute for Religious Freedom reported March 23 that Russian militants calling themselves "Cossacks" have seized Ukrainian Catholic churches and adjacent property in Ukraine's Donetsk region, while barring "believers of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to enter the churches and the territory for prayers and worship."
In December 2022, the occupied Zaporizhzhia region's military-civil administration ordered the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church banned and its property transferred to their control. The Russian order also outlawed the Knights of Columbus and Caritas, the church's official humanitarian arm, in the occupied region.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 continued attacks launched in 2014.
Two joint reports from the New Lines Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights have described Russia's invasion as constituting genocide, with Ukraine reporting more than 128,551 war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine since February 2022.