Irkutsk Catholic Bishop declared persona non grata Georgy Alexandrov20 April 18:21 MCK

The Ordinary of the Catholic Diocese of St. Joseph with its center in Irkutsk (Siberia), Bishop Jerzy Mazur , who is a citizen of Poland, was declared persona non grata and expelled from Russia, the Interfax agency reports.

According to the Catholic newspaper Svet Evangeliya, the head of the border service at Sheremetyevo-2 airport told the Vatican representative that Mazur is on the list of persons prohibited from entering the territory of the Russian Federation.

The Federal Border Service of Russia and other competent authorities do not confirm or deny this information to Interfax.

The newspaper emphasizes that an incident similar to this occurred at Sheremetyevo-2 on April 5 of this year, when a multiple-entry visa to enter Russia was canceled without explanation from the head of the Catholics of Vladimir and Ivanovo, Stefano Caprio , an Italian citizen.

Comment: In connection with the incident, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia expressed strong protest. As recalled, the statement of the Conference states: “An organized campaign has been launched against the Catholic Church in Russia. Such actions by state representatives are directed primarily against Russian Catholic citizens, who are left without pastors and now even without bishops.”

The statement notes that Russian Catholics are now “asking the question: “Do the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the right to have their own pastors, including inviting them from abroad, apply to them, bearing in mind that for 81 years the Catholic Church in Russia was deprived of the opportunity to prepare and ordain its own priests? Does the state really treat them as second-class citizens? Are the times of persecution for faith returning?"

It is quite strange that representatives of the border service do not explain their actions in any way. Perhaps the actions of the border guards are connected with the protest of the Russian Foreign Ministry to the Vatican, which gave Mazur the title “administrator of Eastern Siberia and Karafuto Prefecture.” Such a prefecture existed in Southern Sakhalin from 1905 to 1945, when it was part of Japan. The fact that the Vatican included in the title of its representative the name of an administrative unit that does not exist on the territory of the Russian Federation, according to the Foreign Ministry, means that the Vatican de facto recognizes South Sakhalin as Japanese territory. However, due to the lack of explanations from officials, one can only guess whether this is really the reason for Mazur’s expulsion.