Russia Expels Two More Roman Catholic Priests
The Russian government expelled another two Roman Catholic priests this week, bringing to five the number of foreign Catholic clergy stripped of their visas this year in what Catholic leaders say is a campaign to curb the church’s work in the predominantly Orthodox Christian country.
The priests, both Polish citizens, each had been working in Russian parishes for a decade: the Revs. Edward Mackiewicz in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and Jaroslaw Wisniewski on Russia’s Pacific coast.
The Vatican’s representative to Russia quickly protested the expulsions to the Russian foreign ministry but has yet to receive an explanation, a Vatican diplomat said earlier this week from Moscow.
In April, an Italian priest and a Polish bishop were the first Catholic clergy to be expelled.
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