MOSCOW - Russian authorities refused entry to a Roman Catholic bishop from Poland who was trying to return to his Siberian diocese, the second such ban this month on a foreign-born Catholic priest, a church official said Saturday.
The bans come amid increased discord between the Vatican and Russia's dominant Orthodox Church, which has accused the Catholic Church of trying to poach Orthodox believers.
Bishop Jerzy Mazur was turned away Friday at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport when he arrived from the Polish capital, Warsaw, said Rev. Igor Kovalevsky, spokesman for the Catholic Church in Russia.
The bishop "was told he was a persona non grata and not welcome," Kovalevsky said. Mazur was sent immediately back to Warsaw.
The Vatican summoned Russian Ambassador Vitaly Litvin to protest, according to Fides, the Vatican's missionary news agency.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls called Mazur's ban a "grave violation" of Russia's commitment as a signatory of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which commits countries to recognizing basic human rights and freedoms.
Authorities at Sheremetyevo airport declined to comment Saturday on the refusal to admit Mazur.
Two weeks ago, Russian passport officers ripped up Rev. Stefano Caprio's visa as he left Moscow. Caprio, a priest from Italy, said he was refused a new visa and was told he was on a list of banned foreigners compiled by Russian security services.
Kovalevsky said the decision to bar Mazur and Caprio raised questions about the freedom of religion in Russia, and Mazur said he was devastated at being kept away from his flock.
"For me as a bishop, this is a great tragedy," Poland's PAP news agency quoted Mazur as saying.
Tensions have been high between the Vatican and the Orthodox Church since February when Pope John Paul II decided to elevate the Catholic Church's apostolic administrations in Russia to full-fledged dioceses. The Vatican insisted the dioceses were just a "normalization" of its structure in Russia and were not aimed at antagonizing the Orthodox Church.
But the Orthodox Church complained that it was an invasion of its canonical territory and a threat to its own resurrection efforts after decades of state-sponsored atheism.
Mazur, who was assigned to head one the newly created dioceses, raised the ire of the Foreign Ministry again by using the Japanese name of Karafuto Prefecture to identify the region encompassing the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the disputed Southern Kuril Islands. Russia seized the islands from Japan at the end of World War II.
The Foreign Ministry said in February that it considered the use of the Japanese name to be "an unfriendly act and an interference in the internal affairs of Russia."
About two-thirds of Russia's 144 million inhabitants are Orthodox. There are approximately 600,000 Catholics in Russia.