‘Christian Vision’: Regime Wants Red Church Rector Uladzislau Zavalniuk To Resign

The priest has been in charge of the parish since 1990.

The condition for the return of the Red Church in Minsk to believers is the resignation of priest-canon Uladzislau Zavalniuk, who has headed the parish since 1990. a target="_blank" href=https://belsat.eu/news/13-03-2023-dajtse-groshaj-tsyaper-a-my-padumaem-paslya-yak-ulady-belarusi-nadumali-zarabits-na-katalikah>Belsat writes about this, and the Christian Vision Telegram channel confirms this information.

For almost half a year, the Church of Saints Simon and Alena (better known as the Red Church) remains inaccessible to believers — it was closed after a fire on September 26, 2022. Officially, repairs are being carried out there, communications are disconnected and it is dangerous for people to be inside — however, the priests who were allowed into the closed church claim that it is warm inside, there is hot and cold water, and there are almost no signs of fire.

The Belsat TV channel, quoting unnamed clerics, wrote that the repair was not the issue — the authorities, according to the publication, demand the resignation of the rector Uladzislau Zavalniuk, who has been in office since 1990, when the shrine was handed over to believers. In the Red Church, Belsat was told that they had recently tried to transfer the priest to the parish of Rakau near Minsk, but he managed to convince them not to do this.

Sources of the Christian Vision channel confirmed this information and reported that the church leadership is already looking for a new rector to replace Zavalniuk.

Earlier it was also reported that the authorities demanded payment of the “Minsk Spadchyna” bill for “depreciation of the church and taxes on land use”. The quota of the amount is unknown, but in the summer of 2020, the debt of the Catholic community to the enterprise amounted to 156 thousand rubles. Another 13 thousand they were obliged to pay monthly.

What happened to the Red Church

On September 26, under unclear circumstances, a small fire broke out in the church, after which the district administration banned the operation of the building, and believers and priests were no longer allowed inside.

In the morning of October 6, it became known that the authorities had decided to terminate the agreement with the community of the parish of St. Simon and Alena on the free use of the building of the Red Church. The building itself is owned by the city of Minsk.

Authorities later said the building had been taken away for renovations. However, nothing was said about the intention to return the church to the Catholics after the repair.

The Catholic community sent an open letter to Lukashenka with a request to allow authorized representatives of the parish to inspect the fire-damaged buildings of the Red Church in Minsk. The parishioners were told that the fire in the temple was not accidental, and sent a request to the Investigatory Committee for information on the results of the investigation.

The Minsk City Executive Committee promised the parishioners to allocate a room for prayers and storage of property during repairs in the church. However, the request to allow worship to be held in the main hall, the glazed gallery or the inner courtyard of the church, was turned down by the authorities.

Priest-canon Uladzislau Zavalnyuk is currently working as a janitor at the Church of Saints Simon and Alena.

The parish of the Red Church itself temporarily moved to the Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary on Freedom Square in Minsk.