Ukrainian Catholics flee Crimea to escape threats of arrest , says priest
March 26,2014: Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church are fleeing Crimea to escape
threats of arrest and property seizures, a priest told Catholic News Service just
four days after Russia finalized the region's annexation. "The situation remains very
serious, and we don't know what will happen as the new government is portraying us
all as nationalists and extremists," said Fr. Mykhailo Milchakovskyi, a parish rector
and military chaplain from Kerch, Crimea. He said officials from Russia's Federal
Security Service, or FSB, had called him in for questioning about his community, and
to ask whether he "recognized the new order." The priest told CNS that he and his
family, and at least two-thirds of his parishioners had left Kerch for Ukrainian-controlled
territory on the advice of Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych.
"All my parishioners are patriotic Ukrainians who love their Crimean homeland. But
Russia is now seeking to drive us out," he said on Tuesday (March 25). Archbishop
Shevchuk has asked priests to dedicate Ukraine to Mary's protection. Source: Cns