Crimea: now Putin comes after the Catholics – Damian Thompson, Telegraph Blogs

There's a disturbing story in The Catholic Herald by Jonathan Luxmoore on the growing persecution of Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholics in Crimea. So much for Vladimir Putin's attempts to suck up to Pope Francis.

Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church are fleeing Crimea to escape threats of arrest and property seizures, a priest has said. 

“The situation remains very serious, and we don’t know what will happen — the new government here is portraying us all as nationalists and extremists,” said Father Mykhailo Milchakovskyi, a parish rector and military chaplain from Kerch, Crimea, who was speaking to the Catholic News Service just four days after Russia finalised the region’s annexation. 

He said that officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, had called him in for questioning about his community and to ask whether he “recognised the new order.”

The new order? You can (and should) read the full story here.






View online:

Crimea: now Putin comes after the Catholics – Telegraph Blogs