In the wake of the restrictive new religion law which came
into force last November, despite widespread protests from believers within
Belarus, Forum 18 News Service has discovered that very few educational or
monastic communities of the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Churches - the
country's more established religious organisations - currently meet the tough
new restrictions. These institutions have until 16 November 2004 to make the
substantial changes necessary in order to pass the compulsory re-registration
if they wish to continue their activity in accordance with the new law.
Under the new law, only republic-wide religious organisations or those with
ten or more communities in at least four of the country's six regions
(including one which has been in operation on Belarusian territory for at least
20 years) may found monasteries or convents and educational institutions,
stipulated by Article 28 as "for the training of clergy, theologians and
religious personnel". The new law requires all religious organisations to
register with the state in order to function.
At first sight it would appear that only the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian
Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Belarus would be able to meet these
criteria with ease. Indeed, the Belarusian Exarchate was the first religious
organisation to re-register under the new law, on 28 February, and the head of
the Catholic Church in Belarus, Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek, was presented with
confirmation of his Church's re-registration on 11 April.
In fact, however, a significant number of institutions within both of these
Churches fail to meet the law's re-registration criteria for monastic
communities and educational institutions. Under Article 19, monasteries,
convents and monastic communities must have no fewer than ten participants,
while educational institutions must have qualified tutors proficient in both
state languages - Belarusian and Russian.
According to its official website (www.church.by), the Belarusian Exarchate of
the Russian Orthodox Church has 25 monasteries and convents in Belarus. On
contacting St Afanasi of Brest Monastery in the village of Arkadi near Brest on
23 May, Forum 18 was told that there are only three monks in residence, and on
likewise contacting St Barbara Convent in Pinsk, that it has only four nuns.
Two further monastic institutions in Brest diocese appear to be in a similar
position, since the Belarusian Exarchate website gives the total number of
monks and nuns for the diocese as nine. Vitebsk Orthodox diocese likewise has
four monastic institutions with a total of 21 monks and nuns. Even if one
includes the number of novices 15 in Brest, two in Pinsk and 12 in Vitebsk
diocese the figures are still not sufficient for all monasteries and convents
in these three dioceses to have the ten participants prescribed by the new law.
The Catholic Church is in a similar position. Speaking from Baranovichi in
Brest region on 27 May, a member of the Divine Word (Verbum Dei) monastic order
told Forum 18 that while he, another brother and three priests lived as monks
in what is clearly a monastic complex, "we can't say officially that we
are a monastery" due to the ten participants rule. There are probably five
or six such de facto Catholic monastic communities of between 5 and ten members
in Belarus, said Brother Cornelius.
For the Catholic Church the situation is further exacerbated by the new law's stipulation
that members of monastic communities be either Belarusian citizens or foreign
citizens holding residency permits. Most monks and nuns in Belarus are Polish
citizens on three-month visas, said Brother Cornelius, while the revival of
Catholic monasticism among Belarusians "is moving, but very
gradually".
The legal requirement that teaching personnel at religious educational
institutions be proficient in both Belarusian and Russian also poses
difficulties for both Orthodox and Catholics. The main such institutions within
the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church are Minsk Theological
Seminary and Minsk Theological Academy, both located at the Dormition Monastery
in Zhirovitsy in Grodno region. The institutions' approximately 200 students
from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Lithuania studied in Russian
"of course," a seminary spokesman told Forum 18 by telephone on 27
May. Only a couple of the some 20 tutors there spoke Belarusian, he added.
The Catholic Church has two seminaries in Belarus. Speaking in Russian to Forum
18 on 27 May, an attendant at Pinsk Catholic Seminary where there are 25
students and five tutors - stated that all tuition there takes place in
Belarusian. At the larger Catholic seminary in Grodno, he said, classes are in
Belarusian and Polish, and most tutors there are ethnic Poles who do not know
Belarusian.
Contacted by Forum 18 in Minsk on 28 May, the chairman of the State Committee
for Religious Affairs, Stanislav Buko, explained that the re-registration of
the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in Belarus in fact included only their
central bodies, dioceses and Pinsk Catholic Seminary. No monastic institution
has yet submitted re-registration papers, he added, and neither has Minsk
Theological Seminary, Minsk Theological Academy nor the Catholic seminary in
Grodno.