Greek Catholic Priest Kidnapped by Crimean (Russian) authorities

The Interpreter ^ | 03/15/2014

[Greetings_Puny_Humans]

1804 GMT: The Economist’s Edward Lucas has posted a statement from Bishop Borys Gudziak that provides more information on the kidnapped Greek Catholic Priest:

Fr. Kvych was seized by two men in uniform and four men in civilian clothing. The young chaplain for the Ukrainian Navy was taken to an undisclosed location where he is being held captive. A parishioner who called Fr. Kvych’s cellular phone heard abusive language on the line directed at the priest before the call was cut short. Sources confirm that Fr. Kvych is alive.

Earlier this week at the direction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarchy Fr. Kvych and other Greek Catholic priests in Crimea evacuated their wives and children to mainland Ukraine. The priests themselves returned to their parishes to be with their faithful in a time of crisis and moral and physical danger…

Yesterday, another Greek Catholic priest returned to his home in Crimea (location not revealed to preserve the priest’s identity) to find on the destroyed door of his apartment a menacing sign: “Get out Vatican spies. Police were standing outside the building.

The Greek Catholic priests of the peninsula have been directed not to celebrate services in their churches this Sunday but to serve in Roman Catholic Churches where in the company of other clergy their safety can be more easily guaranteed.

The Yanukovych government threatened to delegalize the Greek Catholic Church at Christmas time due to the pastoral attention that priest gave to protesting faithful. From 1946 to 1989 the UGCC was the biggest illegal Church in the world and the most substantial body of social opposition to Soviet rule in Ukraine. Since it did not collaborate with Soviet authorities it has enjoyed particular moral authority in Ukrainian society in the post-Soviet period and during the current social and political crisis.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It’s faith that brings miracles. And sometimes faith doesn’t kick in until the situation gets pretty blooming desperate.

[HiTech RedNeck]

... I mean yes we disagree on exactly what the Eucharist/communion is, but it’s often been treated rudely by intruders without any seeming repercussions. Why should those times you mentioned have differed in outcome? I say faith. Faith that called upon the promise of God to defend believers. That is the faith which God answers, and a sign of Christian devotion would be one logical place for Him to answer at.