Belarus expels Polish priests as pressure on the Catholic Church intensifies

Belarusian authorities have forced out a wave of long-serving Polish priests by refusing to renew their residency permits, intensifying state pressure on the countryʼs Catholic Church.

In recent months, Belarusian authorities have forced out a number of foreign Catholic clergy by refusing to renew their residency permits.

In early March, two priests of the Diocese of Pinsk in southern Belarus were refused permission to continue their ministry. In May, three priests of the northern Diocese of Vitebsk lost their permits, followed later that month by five priests and a monk of the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev. All were Polish citizens who had ministered in Belarusian parishes for years, several of them for decades.

A number of the affected priests held parish leadership and deanery-level roles in the Archdiocese of Minsk-Mohilev, the metropolitan see that includes the capital, Minsk.

The move follows a pattern in which the Belarusian government has steadily increased pressure on the Catholic Church in Belarus, a community with long-held Polish ties.

Administrative pressure on foreign priests

Belarus operates one of the most restrictive frameworks for foreign clergy in the region. Priests may serve only with explicit approval from the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, a state office in Minsk headed by Aleksandr Rumak. Human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized Rumak for refusing residency permits without explanation and for declining to engage with the foreign clergy affected.

Permits are tied to a specific parish and are typically granted for just three to six months, though some are issued for a year. Regulations forbid individual parishes from applying for permits on their own; requests must instead pass through registered national religious bodies, a slow and bureaucratic process.

Foreign clergy must also demonstrate proficiency in Belarusian or Russian and are forbidden to carry out religious activities outside the specific localities where their inviting parish is registered. If a priest wishes to celebrate Mass in another parish, further government permission is required.

State security services also closely monitor the sermons, websites, and social media activity of foreign priests, while authorities in Minsk can deny, revoke, or refuse to renew residency permits without giving an official reason.

A notable example is Polish priest Father Józef Geza, who in 2022 was forced to leave Belarus after 25 years of ministry when authorities declined to renew his permit without publicly explaining the decision.

Growing clergy shortages

Metropolitan Archbishop Iosif Staneuski of Minsk-Mohilev acknowledged the impact of these restrictions in a May 28 interview with Vatican News, warning that the number of priests serving in Belarus is steadily declining, particularly in the countryʼs eastern regions.

He said some priests are now required to travel hundreds of kilometers to serve multiple parishes because of the growing shortages.

The archbishop also noted that foreign priests — especially Poles who have ministered in Belarus for decades — are increasingly unable to remain in the country because of residency-permit restrictions, placing additional strain on already limited pastoral resources.

Staneuski said the Church remains open to priests from around the world, stressing that the Catholic Church has no borders and that differences in language, nationality, or skin color are no obstacle to Christian ministry. Yet he explained that the most sustainable solution to Belarus’ shrinking number of priests is the development of local vocations, as restrictions on foreign clergy increasingly leave parishes understaffed.

Political roots of the crackdown

Relations between the Belarusian state and the Catholic Church deteriorated sharply after President Alexander Lukashenkoʼs disputed reelection in 2020, which triggered the largest wave of anti-government protests in the countryʼs history.

During the crackdown that followed, Catholic churches sheltered protesters and human rights activists fleeing security forces, while senior clergy publicly condemned the violence. Since then, dozens of priests have faced threats, deportation, administrative penalties, or imprisonment on charges of espionage and treason that the Church and rights groups say were fabricated.

The rift widened after Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which Belarus helped facilitate by allowing its territory to be used by Russian forces. In line with the Vatican, Belarus’ Catholic hierarchy repeatedly called for peace and urged Minsk not to deepen its involvement in the war, placing the Church at odds with a government closely aligned with the Kremlin.

Prominent critics of Lukashenko have also emerged from Belarus’ Catholic community. Among them is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, a practicing Catholic and one of the countryʼs most prominent human rights advocates. During a meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 27, Bialiatski raised concerns about ongoing human rights violations in Belarus.

Polish ties and geopolitical tensions

In September 2020, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Sergey Naryshkin accused the United States of using Belarus’ Catholic communities to foment unrest and sow domestic divisions. Although no evidence was presented, the claims reinforced a narrative promoted by Moscow and Minsk that portrays the Catholic Church as a vehicle for foreign influence.

Those suspicions are amplified by the Belarusian Churchʼs long-standing ties to Poland. Many Belarusian Catholics are concentrated in the western regions of Grodno and Brest near the Polish border, while a significant number of priests either have Polish roots or were educated in Polish seminaries.

At the same time, Warsaw has remained one of the most outspoken critics of both Lukashenko and the Kremlin, frequently condemning repression in Belarus and raising concerns about the treatment of the countryʼs Polish minority.

Against this backdrop, Belarusian authorities have increasingly viewed the Catholic Churchʼs cross-border links as a political liability rather than a religious or cultural connection, making it a recurring target in the governmentʼs broader campaign against independent institutions and civil society.