Category: Diocese of Scranton News

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholics are called to be active participants in political life and be a force against the decline of democracy worldwide, Pope Francis said.

“In today’s world, democracy – let’s be honest – is not in good health,” the pope told some 1,200 participants at an event during Italian Catholic Social Week in Trieste, Italy.

The pope traveled to the northern Italian city for a one-day visit July 7 to participate in the four-day conference organized by the Italian bishops’ conference on the theme “At the Heart of Democracy.” The Vatican published his talk the same day.

Speaking in the Generali Convention Center in Trieste, Pope Francis said that “just as the crisis of democracy cuts across different realities and nations,” Christians everywhere are called to develop an “attitude of responsibility toward social transformation.”

The pope criticized the effects on democracy of the “throwaway culture” present in global society in which “there is no place for the poor, the frail, the sick, children, women, the young, the old.” Such a culture makes government structures “incapable of listening and serving people.”

“Whenever someone is marginalized, the whole social body suffers,” he said, comparing the current crisis of democracy to a “wounded heart” which is hurt by the various forms of exclusion.

Pope Francis explained that democracy does not merely entail voting — putting aside his speech to voice his concern about declines in voter turnout — and said “it demands that we create the conditions for everyone to express themselves and participate.” He added that people must be “trained” in democratic participation from a young age and develop “a critical sense regarding ideological and populist temptations.”

The pope warned of the “seductive” nature of ideologies and urged that society cultivate a sense of solidarity to combat them. “Everyone should feel part of a community project; no one should feel useless,” he said

Departing from his prepared remarks, Pope Francis said that the welfare state alone is “the enemy of democracy, the enemy of love for neighbor,” statements that were met with strong applause by the crowd in the convention center.

Certain approaches to welfare and social assistance “that do not recognize the dignity of people are social hypocrisy,” he said, reading again from his text. “And what is behind this distancing from social reality? There is indifference, and indifference is a cancer of democracy, a non-participation.”

To combat indifference and heal the heart of democracy requires widespread participation in political life, the pope said.

A “healed heart” of democracy requires creativity, he said, citing examples of how the Holy Spirit has been at work in economics, politics and society to strengthen a sense of community. The pope highlighted in particular the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce; communities promoting renewable energy practice; policies that increase birth rates, jobs, education, accessible housing and mobility; and the integration of migrants.

Such issues, he said, cannot be addressed on a political level without people’s participation in politics.

Political participation requires courage “to think of oneself as a people” rather than solely as “myself, my clan, my family, my friends,” the pope said, which he specified is different from populism.

Pope Francis also urged the participants not to be deceived by easy solutions to society’s problems but rather to prioritize the common good.

“As Catholics, in this regard, we cannot be content with a marginal or private faith,” he said. Yet bringing one’s faith into the public sphere means “not so much to be heard, but to have the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in the public debate.”

Catholics, he said, “have something to say, but not to defend privileges. No. We must be a voice, a condemning and proposing voice in a society that is often mute and where too many have no voice.”

The pope asked Christians to develop “politics of love” and to move beyond polarization, which “does not help to understand and confront challenges.”

Rather, the role of the church is to engage people with hope, Pope Francis said, “because without it we administer the present but do not build the future.”

“Without hope we would be stewards, balancers of the present, and not prophets and builders of the future,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – God is present in the “dark corners” of local communities and in people’s lives, Pope Francis said.

“His presence reveals itself precisely in the faces marked by suffering and where degradation seems to triumph,” the pope said in his homily at Mass in the northern Italian city of Trieste July 7.

“God’s infinity is concealed in human misery, the Lord stirs and becomes present, he becomes a friendly presence precisely in the wounded flesh of the least, the forgotten and the discarded,” he said.

The pope was in Trieste, a port city on the Adriatic Sea close to the borders of Croatia and Slovenia, for a one-day pastoral visit which included speaking at the 50th edition of Italy’s Catholic Social Week. About 8,500 people were present for the Mass in the city’s Unity of Italy Square, including bishops and priests from the Serbian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Lutheran Churches.

In his homily, published the same day by the Vatican, the pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading (Mk 6:1-6) that described people’s reaction to hearing Jesus teach in the synagogue: Many were shocked and offended that a simple man — the son of a carpenter — could possess such wisdom and perform miracles.

Their taking offense and experiencing “scandal” refers to their encountering a kind of “‘a stumbling block,’ an obstacle, something that hinders and prevents you from going further” and truly believing in Jesus, the pope said.

That obstacle, he said, was Jesus’ humanity, because “how can God, the Almighty, reveal himself in the fragility of human flesh?”

However, “what is the obstacle that prevents believing in Jesus” today, the pope asked.

The “scandal” or stumbling block today, he said, is believing that God truly cares for humanity and “is moved by our wounds, who takes on our weariness, who for us is broken like bread.”

“We need the scandal of a faith rooted in the God who became man and, therefore, a human faith, a faith of flesh, that enters history, that touches people’s lives, that heals broken hearts, that becomes a leaven of hope and a seed of a new world,” he said.

“We don’t need a religiosity closed in on itself, that looks up to heaven without caring about what happens on earth and celebrates liturgies in the temple but forgets the dust blowing in our streets,” Pope Francis said.

In a world where people face so many challenges, struggles and social and political issues, there needs to be “a faith that awakens consciences from lethargy, that puts its finger in the wounds, in the wounds of society, and there are many,” he said.

This kind of faith is “restless,” it moves “from heart to heart” and it is moved by concrete problems in society, he said. It is a faith “that becomes a thorn in the flesh of a society often anesthetized and dazed by consumerism.”

“Consumerism is a plague, a cancer, it makes your heart become ill, it makes you selfish,” he said.

“We need a faith that disrupts the calculations of human selfishness, that denounces evil, that points out injustices, that disturbs the schemes of those who, in the shadow of power, play with the lives of the weak,” he said, underlining how there are many people who “use faith to exploit people. This is not faith.”

Instead of being “scandalized unnecessarily by so many little things,” he said, “let us be indignant at all those situations where life is degraded, wounded and killed.”

“Why are we not scandalized in the face of rampant evil, life being humiliated, labor issues, the sufferings of migrants? Why do we remain apathetic and indifferent to the injustices of the world? Why do we not take to heart the situation of prisoners” and all those in pain or discarded living in one’s city, he asked.

It is because “we are afraid, afraid of finding Christ there,” the pope said. “God is hidden in the dark corners of life and of our cities.”

“Let us bring the prophecy of the Gospel into our flesh, with our choices even before our words,” he said, asking the faithful to “be on the front line of spreading the Gospel of hope,” especially toward migrants and “those who, in body or spirit, need to be encouraged and comforted.”

Before praying the Angelus with those gathered in the square, the pope noted how Trieste has a “vocation of bringing different peoples together” because it is an important port and is located at the crossroads of Italy, Central Europe and the Balkans.

“In these situations, the challenge for the church and civil community is to know how to combine openness and stability, welcome and identity,” he said. Trieste is equipped to face this challenge because, “as Christians, we have the Gospel, which gives meaning and hope to our lives and, as citizens, you have the constitution, a reliable ‘compass’ for the path of democracy.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Catholic Relief Services, the international relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., criticized funding legislation recently passed by the U.S. House as “inconsistent with American values and interests” over cuts to humanitarian funding.

The legislation — the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025 — which funds some of the U.S. priorities abroad, was approved by the House in a 212-200 vote June 28, and reflects Republicans’ pledge to cut funds for the overall legislation, representing about $7.6 billion less than the previous version.

The House’s bill provides $3.3 billion in foreign military financing for Israel amid its conflict with Hamas, funds to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region and funds efforts to counter illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. But it also cuts some programs, including some environmental and humanitarian efforts.

Bill O’Keefe, executive vice president for Mission, Mobilization and Advocacy at CRS, said in a July 1 statement, “We were disappointed in the disproportionately low allocation provided to the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2025. We are further alarmed by the steep cuts to life-saving foreign assistance in the House-passed bill. The substantial reductions to critical humanitarian and development accounts, in some cases by roughly 25%, would have dire consequences for millions of families facing hunger, humanitarian crises and infectious diseases.”

O’Keefe further argued the bill “also fails to invest in climate adaptation, despite the moral, economic and security benefits of enhancing resilience to severe weather shocks like droughts, flooding and extreme heatwaves.”

“In our country and worldwide, these shocks have severely impacted self-sufficiency, food production and livelihoods for the most vulnerable communities around the world. These impacts are projected to worsen substantially over time,” O’Keefe said.

While CRS appreciates “the strong funding levels approved for a select few accounts such as nutrition and malaria,” O’Keefe said, “deprioritizing overall humanitarian and development funding is inconsistent with American values and interests.”

“The U.S. must get serious about combating global poverty by funding effective foreign assistance programs we know support people, families and communities to thrive,” O’Keefe said. “We will collaborate with Congress on a bipartisan bill that robustly funds humanitarian and development programming and provides a courageous response to the challenges facing our global family. The U.S. has long been a force for good around the world, and CRS is committed to supporting the passage of a bill that reflects that history.”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., chairman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee said in a statement, “I am very pleased with the House’s approval of the State and Foreign Operations bill for the Fiscal Year 2025 which builds on the policy wins of the Fiscal Year 2024 enacted bill.”

“This crucial piece of legislation, which funds our national security and foreign policy priorities, safeguards hard-earned American taxpayer dollars while upholding key U.S. values,” Diaz-Balart said June 28.

He cast the cuts as “among the many victories,” saying, “We achieved a 19% reduction from the President’s Budget, and an 11% cut from Fiscal Year 2024 enacted levels.”

“This legislation continues to reestablish American leadership where it has been severely lacking under the Biden Administration,” Diaz-Balart said. “It upholds key U.S. national security priorities by supporting allies such as Israel and Taiwan and countering adversaries such as Communist China, the terrorist states of Iran and Cuba, and terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Under the leadership of the Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Olka., “and with the support of my colleagues,” he argued, “we are cutting wasteful spending while fulfilling our national security commitments with the passage of the State and Foreign Operations funding bill for Fiscal Year 2025. This bill will advance global freedom, manifest strong solidarity with our allies, and stand firm against the malign forces undermining U.S. national security.”

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized the House’s legislation prior to its passage, saying in a June 18 statement, “In spite of an urgent need for U.S. diplomatic engagement and assistance in a volatile world, House Republicans are abandoning last year’s budget agreement and proposing to slash State Department and USAID budgets.”

“Their bill would drastically cut staffing and programming at our foreign affairs agencies — undermining our ability to deliver on our strategic foreign policy objectives, such as supporting our allies, competing with malign actors, and modernizing our foreign affairs workforce,” Cardin said.

In April, the U.S. bishops’ conference asked congressional lawmakers to protect peacebuilding and humanitarian aid in the bill.

Each year the U.S. Conference and Catholic Bishops and CRS “implore Congress,” the letter said, “to assess budget decisions using three criteria: protection of human life and dignity, impact on the most vulnerable, and advancement of the common good.”

It added that Pope Francis “highlighted these priorities” in a January letter “asking global leaders to “be mindful of the moral responsibility that each of us has in the fight against poverty, the attainment of an integral development for all our brothers and sisters, and the quest for a peaceful coexistence among peoples.”

MOCANAQUA — A traditional “walking pilgrimage” is being planned by Holy Spirit Parish for Saturday, July 13, starting at Saint Mary Church in Mocanaqua and concluding at Saint Adalbert Church in Glen Lyon.

The pilgrimage will begin at 8 a.m. with Confessions and prayers at Saint Mary Church, 130 Rectory Road, Mocanaqua.

The pilgrim brigade will then walk approximately six miles through the Mocanaqua Tract of the Pinchot State Forest, culminating with Holy Mass at Saint Adalbert’s. Lunch will be served and bus transportation back to Mocanaqua will be available.

The public is invited to participate in the pilgrimage, either by walking or by submitting prayer requests to be carried by the pilgrims.

To register, contact Raphael Micca at (570) 301-9253 or email rdmicca@aol.com prior to July 7.

The pilgrimage will be held rain or shine. Participants are asked to dress accordingly and modestly.

 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The sacrament of the anointing of the sick is not just for those who are nearing the end of their life, Pope Francis said.

“Let us remember that the anointing of the sick is one of the ‘sacraments of healing,’ of ‘restoration,’ that heals the spirit,” the pope said in a video message released July 2 by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network.

The network posts a short video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention each month. For the month of July, the pope dedicated his prayer intention to the pastoral care of the sick.

“The anointing of the sick is not a sacrament only for those who are at the point of death,” the pope said, emphasizing “it is important that this is clear.”

Having a priest give the sacrament does not necessarily mean saying “goodbye to life,” he said. “Thinking this way means giving up every hope.”

“When a person is very ill, it’s advisable to give them the anointing of the sick. And when someone is elderly, it’s good that they receive the anointing of the sick,” Pope Francis said, underlining how there is no need to wait until a person experiencing a serious illness is at the point of death to receive the sacrament.

“Let us pray that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick grant the Lord’s strength to those who receive it and to their loved ones, and that it may become for everyone an ever more visible sign of compassion and hope,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Heaven is not a secure vault protected from outsiders but a “hidden treasure” that is reached by cultivating virtues, Pope Francis said.

Before praying the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29, the pope reflected on Jesus giving St. Peter, the first pope, the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

“The mission that Jesus entrusts to Peter is not that of barring the doors to the house, permitting entry only to a few select guests, but of helping everyone to find the way to enter, in faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus,” Pope Francis said after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Heaven, he added, is “for everyone. Everyone, everyone, everyone can enter.”

The pope said that St. Peter “received the keys to the kingdom not because he was perfect, no, he is a sinner, but because he was humble, honest and the Father had given him sincere faith.”

Even after many trials and setbacks, the Apostle Peter was the first to experience for himself “the joy and freedom that come from meeting the Lord,” and the first “to understand that authority is a service in order to open the door to Jesus.”

The following day, Pope Francis again appeared in the window of the Apostolic Palace to keep his usual Sunday appointment of praying the Angelus with the faithful. He focused on the Gospel theme of inclusivity by reflecting on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark in which a woman is healed after touching Jesus’ cloak and a girl is resurrected after Jesus took her by the hand.

Highlighting the importance of physical contact in both healings, the pope asked, “Why is this physical contact important?”

“It is because these two women are considered impure and cannot, therefore, be physically touched — one because she suffers from bleeding and the other because she is dead,” he said. “Yet, Jesus allows Himself to be touched and is not afraid to touch.”

By carrying out the physical healing, Jesus “challenges the false religious belief that God separates the pure, placing them on one side, from the impure on another,” the pope said. “Instead, God does not make this kind of separation because we are all his children.”

He added that impurity “does not come from food, illness, or even death; impurity comes from an impure heart.”

Pope Francis urged Christians to take to heart the lesson from the day’s Gospel reading, that “in the face of bodily and spiritual sufferings, of the wounds our souls bear, of the situations that crush us, and even in the face of sin, God does not keep us at a distance.”

“God is not ashamed of us; God does not judge us,” he said. “On the contrary, He draws near to let Himself be touched and to touch us, and He always raises us from death.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – While Jesus entrusted St. Peter with the keys to the kingdom more than two millennia ago, and his modern-day successor conferred apostolic authority to newly appointed archbishops June 29, it is ultimately God who holds the power to open the church’s doors and lead the Christian community forward in its mission of evangelization, Pope Francis said.

Reflecting on the Apostle Peter’s liberation from prison after an angel opened his cell, the pope said God “is the one who sets us free and opens the way before us” in his homily during Mass for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul June 29.

He noted that the Christians Peter sought out after his liberation did not believe he was knocking at their door, mistaking him for an angel.

“This point is significant: the doors of the prison were opened by the Lord’s strength, but Peter then found it hard to enter the house of the Christian community,” he said. “How many times have communities not learned this wisdom of the need to open the doors!”

Before 33 newly appointed archbishops gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica to receive their palliums — woolen bands worn by archbishops to symbolize their pastoral authority and unity with the pope — Pope Francis underscored the model of St. Paul as one who “discovers the grace of weakness.”

“When we are weak, he tells us, it is then that we are strong, because we no longer rely on ourselves, but on Christ,” the pope said.

Yet he explained that relying on Christ “does not lead to a consoling, inward-looking religiosity like that found in a few movements in the church today,” noting instead that St. Paul’s encounter with God ignited within him “a burning zeal for evangelization.”

Both Sts. Peter and Paul “witnessed first-hand the work of God, who opened the doors of their interior prisons but also the actual prisons into which they were thrown because of the Gospel,” he said, as well as the “doors of evangelization, so they could have the joy of encountering their brothers and sisters in the fledgling communities and bring the hope of the Gospel to all.”

After the entrance procession, deacons brought out the palliums from the tomb of St. Peter for Pope Francis to bless them. The palliums, made from the wool of lambs blessed by the pope on the feast of St. Agnes — who is often depicted with a lamb to symbolize purity — emphasize the role of the archbishop as a pastor who guides and protects his flock.

Pope Francis remained seated during the Mass — Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, was the main celebrant at the altar — but stood during the sign of peace to greet Orthodox Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis of Chalcedon, who attended the Mass as part of a delegation from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople..

The pope invited the metropolitan to sit next to him when he distributed the palliums to the archbishops, who each shook his hand after greeting the pope.

Among the 33 archbishops were Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne of Hartford, Connecticut, and Archbishop Thomas R. Zinkula of Dubuque, Iowa. Both U.S. archbishops brought members of their families with them to Rome to witness them receive their palliums from the pope.

After the Mass, Archbishop Zinkula told Catholic News Service that receiving the pallium is a “huge symbol” of the archbishops’ unity with the universal church and the pope, which he said is especially important in light of a growing sense of division in the United States at large and the U.S. church.

A member of the North American synod team, Archbishop Zinkula said that discussions on tensions arose in many synod listening sessions throughout the country, and that the responsibility for overcoming such feelings of division fall to the church’s pastors.

“If we’re going to be effective in evangelizing in our increasingly secular culture, we’ve got to be together as a church, and that bishop is at the heart of that,” he said, stressing the need for people to seek refuge in the sacraments and particularly the Eucharist “to heal us and help us grow in our faith and love.”

The archbishop said the church needs to address its own sense of division, but that it should also play a role in “helping to dissipate that larger tension in society.”

Archbishop Coyne also acknowledged increased societal division which “finds its way into the church,” but said that the chair of St. Peter remains as a “symbol of unity” for Catholics, “irregardless of who sits in it.”

As a result, the church’s pastors are called to be “unifiers,” the archbishop told CNS. “People are feeling isolated, that’s why we want to bring them to communion, people are feeling angry and feel they have meaningless lives, that’s why we want to have them know the full meaning of life, which is in Jesus Christ.”

“Everything we do as Christians, especially as Catholics, should never be anything that leads to division, anger,” but rather action that “brings us together as brothers and sisters,” he said.

(OSV News)- Two disappeared Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests seized by Russian forces from their church in Berdyansk in November 2022 have been released after months of captivity, according to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Redemptorist Fathers Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, who served at the
Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Berdyansk, were among 10 prisoners who have been returned to Ukrainian authorities.

“Thank you to everyone who did everything possible so that we can breathe our own air. It is hard to believe that I am in my native land,” said Father Levitsky after his release, according to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s website.

Zelenskyy announced the news in Ukrainian June 28 on his Facebook page.

“We have managed to free 10 more of our people from Russian captivity, despite all the difficulties,” wrote Zelenskyy, who recognized “the Holy See’s efforts to bring these people home.”

Moments after Zelenskyy’s announcement, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church posted the news on its website, along with images of the two priests taken during their imprisonment by Russia. Both appeared to have lost significant amounts of weight, particularly Father Geleta, and their heads were shaved. The priests gazed directly at the camera, holding up religious medals in their right hands and raising their left thumbs. Father Geleta smiled.

Speaking from Ukraine to OSV News a few hours after the priests’ release, Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, told OSV News, “We still don’t know what kind of condition (they are in) and what kind of trauma they endured.

“We are glad that they’re safe and we hope they can recover from this ordeal,” he said, describing the priests as “confessors of the faith,” an honorific title historically used to describe Christians who have publicly professed Christ amid persecution.

Also freed along with the two priests were Nariman Dzhelyal, deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, who was captured in Crimea in 2021; civilians Olena Piekh and Valeriy Matiushenko, held captive since 2017-2018; and five civilians captured in Belarus: Mykola Shvets, Natalia Zakharenko, Pavlo Kupriienko, Liudmyla Honcharenko and Kateryna Briukhanova.

“All of them are now free and home in Ukraine,” announced Zelenskyy. “We will definitely free all our people.”

The two priests participated in a scheduled June 29 prayer breakfast hosted by Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, said the return — which saw him among those greeting the priests in Kyiv at 2 a.m. on June 29 — was “a very joyful moment, which encourages all of us to continue to pray for all the prisoners, because their fate is very difficult; some of them have been in captivity for several years.”

The archbishop called for “concrete initiatives” to secure additional exchanges, “because every life is precious for all of us, especially in God’s eyes.

Information regarding the whereabouts of Father Levitsky and Father Geleta has been uncertain since their capture. Most recently, the two were thought to be in detention at Russia’s Kalinin Labor Camp in Horlivka, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, which is currently under Russian occupation.

Earlier in June, Felix Corley of Forum 18 — a news service that partners with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in defending freedom of religion, thought and conscience — told OSV News that information was “the closest I think we’ve come to actually confirming at least where they are.”

The Donetsk Exarchate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, to which the priests belong, told Forum 18 June 3 that it had received no news of the two priests. Previously, Father Levitsky was thought by Yevhen Zakharov of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group to be held in an investigation prison in Russia’s Rostov region, while Father Geleta was believed to be in custody at a separate investigation prison in Russian-occupied Crimea. Father Geleta is known to suffer from an acute form of diabetes.

Both priests had refused to leave their parishioners following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, which continued attacks launched in 2014 against Ukraine. Shortly after Father Levitsky and Father Geleta were captured, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said he had received “the sad news that our priests are being tortured without mercy.

Corley had reported earlier in June that Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, claimed on Telegram May 23 that Russia had proposed exchanging two unnamed Catholic priests for two Orthodox priests.

The 47-year-old Father Levitsky and 59-year-old Father Geleta are the only two Catholic priests known to be in Russian detention, said Corley.

Moskalkova — who has been sanctioned by several nations, including the U.S. — said in her Telegram post that “Ukraine, for absolutely unknown reasons, did not agree to such an exchange.”

Major Archbishop Shevchuk had repeatedly called for the release of the two priests, and has echoed Pope Francis’ pleas for an “all-for-all” prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

“I recently visited the Catholic priests in their place of detention and made sure that the conditions corresponded to international standards,” Moskalkova claimed, without indicating the date and location of the alleged meeting. “On their part, only one request was made, to see their family and friends as quickly as possible.”

“We had heard rumors before that at least one of them was there in that camp,” Corley told OSV News. “So it does seem to me that that’s the most likely place where they were, at least at the beginning of May, when (Moskalkova) was there.”

He noted that Moskalkova was in occupied Donetsk May 3 and visited Horlivka with the Russian-appointed human rights official for the region, Darya Morozova. Corley’s May 30 written inquiries to the offices of both Moskalkova and Morozova, asking to confirm the location and condition of the two priests, have yet to receive a response.

Father Andriy Buchvak, chancellor of the Donetsk Exarchate, had told Forum 18 his office had no confirmation that Moskalkova had in fact visited the priests, but said that her reference to them was a “good sign” they had remained alive after 18 months in captivity.

Corley also noted on the Forum 18 website that Father Levitsky and Father Geleta had “appear(ed) to be facing criminal trial, under false charges related to weapons, explosives, and allegedly ‘extremist’ texts the Russian occupation forces claim to have found” in their Berdyansk church.

Even the attempt to charge the priests under Russia’s criminal code is a breach of international law, Corley told OSV News.

“The international community recognizes these territories as occupied and you can’t impose new laws on occupied territory. You’re supposed to leave the laws that pre-existed in force,” said Corley, pointing to the Geneva Conventions. “It seems that in the case of two Greek Catholic priests, they’re going to bring them to trial under the Russian criminal code. … (but) if they are to bring them to trial, it should be under the Ukrainian criminal code (for) anything that they’ve done which was against Ukrainian law.”

In addition, said Corley, those who have been “jailed by the Russians in (occupied) Crimea and other places … (are) normally transferred to prisons in Russia to serve their sentences, and again, that would be against the Geneva Conventions.”

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifically bans deportations, transfers and evacuations from occupied territory, while Article 76 states that “protected persons accused of offenses shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein.”

Numerous substantiated accounts of torture during Russian detention also violate the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Russia ratified in 1987, and which requires those who engage in torture to be punished, said Corley.

As part of a broader crackdown on a number of religious communities in Ukraine, Russian occupation authorities are also planning to try Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) priest Father Kostiantyn Maksimov on charges of “espionage,” Corley noted. The 41-year-old priest, who was seized by Russian occupation forces in May 2023, faces a prison term of 10 to 12 years if convicted.

Father Stepan Podolchak, a priest of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, was captured Feb. 13 in Russian-occupied Kherson, taken from his home for while barefoot, with a bag over his head, according to Corley. The priest’s body, bearing bruises and a possible bullet wound to the head, was found on the street of his village, Kalanchak, two days later.

A Protestant woman in her early 50s has been under arrest by Russian forces since early 2024 for remarks “apparently related to Ukraine” during “a meeting at a private house,” said Corley, who noted that the woman — who remains unnamed since “publicity could … make her situation worse” may be facing criminal trial under Russian occupation officials.

Muslim clergy have also been subjected to duress and torture, Corley reported.

In December, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, or UGCC, announced it had obtained a copy of an order signed a year earlier by Yevgeny Balitsky, the Kremlin-installed head of the occupied Zaporizhzhia’s military-civil administration, declaring that the church had been banned and its property was to be transferred to his administration. Also banned by the order were the Knights of Columbus and Caritas, the official humanitarian arm of the worldwide Catholic Church.