All Greek Catholic parishes in the Brest region have been liquidated
On April 9, a session of the Supreme Court of Belarus considered the appeal of the Greek Catholic parish in Brest against the decision of the Brest Regional Court to liquidate the parish. Unfortunately, the appeal was not satisfied – a final decision was made to deprive the community of its registration as a religious organization, writes Katolik.life.
Believers learned about this, but neither the structures of the Catholic Church nor state bodies reported the liquidation of the parish of Saints Peter and Andrew in Brest.
Moreover, by decision of the local authorities, the Greek Catholic parish of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Baranavichy was also liquidated. Along with the parish in Ivatsevichy, which had previously failed re-registration, all three religious organizations of Greek Catholics (Uniates) in the Brest region have been liquidated in total.
The situation of the communities in Brest and Baranavichy is unique. While the parish in Ivatsevichy, like many Roman Catholic communities, did not pass re-registration in 2025 and filed an application for the liquidation of the organization, in this case, the liquidation process occurred through the courts.
The details are unknown to the believers. But it appears that the communities disagreed with the liquidation, which is why the local authorities made such decisions, and the faithful appealed these decisions in court.
The exact official reason for the liquidation is unknown, but in one of the decisions, believers noticed wording about an alleged "threat to national interests".
The parish in Baranavichy also filed an appeal, but the outcome is unknown to the faithful — most likely, it was also rejected. Currently, the community participates in Roman Catholic masses in the church.
After the liquidation of the organizations, Greek Catholics cannot organize services in the Byzantine rite or gather independently for prayer in their churches. The issue of parish property is currently being resolved — it will likely be necessary to register church buildings in the names of private individuals.
As far as believers know, Greek Catholics of the Brest region hope that an agreement will be reached to celebrate liturgies in the Byzantine rite in local Catholic churches. And they do not lose hope that in the future they will be able to re-register the parishes.
It is noteworthy that such processes occurred under the new Apostolic Nuncio (diplomatic representative) of the Vatican in Belarus, Archbishop Ignazio Ceffalia (pictured in the main photo), who is himself a Greek Catholic — a priest of the Byzantine rite of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church.
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