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Two Ukrainian Catholic priests who were held captive by Russia for a year and a half were freed June 28, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kyiv announced.
The two priests, Father Ivan Levytskyi and Father Bohdan Heleta, who are members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer — the Redemptorists – were “released from a Russian prison,” the Church’s information service said on its website.
His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head and father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, expressed gratitude to the Holy See for the “rescue” of the priests, the information service said, singling out Pope Francis; Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, and “the entire diplomatic corps of the Vatican."
The news reported by the Church's website also cited Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna who has been carrying out Pope Francis' peace mission in Ukraine, and Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine.
“Each of them contributed invaluably to making this event a reality,” the Church said.
Pope Francis, speaking Saturday in St. Peter's Square, also welcomed the news.
“I thank God for the release of the two Greek-Catholic priests,” Pope Francis said after the midday Angelus prayer. He invited those gathered in the square to pray that “all the prisoners of this war return home soon.”
President Zelensky thanks Vatican
On June 28, on the social network X, Ukrainian President Volodymyre Zelensky announced the release and return to Ukraine of 10 civilians who had been taken prisoner in Russia and Belarus. Among them, he mentioned two priests, who “were captured in Berdyansk for resisting the occupiers.”
Zelensky welcomed “the efforts made by the Holy See to bring these people home.”
Ninety other Ukrainians had been released earlier in the week.
On Saturday, the two priests spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast that Zelensky hosted.
During a peace conference in Switzerland June 15 and 16, Cardinal Parolin said the Holy See “remains ready to help implement potential mediation initiatives.” Calling for the return to their families of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, Parolin said the Holy See "maintains direct contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities with the aim of strengthening the effectiveness of the ad hoc mechanism created following the visit of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi to Kyiv and Moscow, with a view to resolving concrete cases.”
Tortured to confess?
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Father Levytskyi and Father Heleta (also spelled Geleta, in photo above), decided to stay with their flock in Berdyansk, a small city on the Sea of Azov, southwest of Mariupol. They served both the Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic communities, even as the Russian army occupied their town beginning February 27, 2022.
They were arrested November 16, 2022, and, according to the Church, the occupiers placed military items as well as extremist literature in the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Berdyansk, where the priests served. The Donetsk Exarchate (diocese) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has strongly denied the claims of illegal weapons possession. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church at first said it had heard that the Russians might be forcing a confession through torture. Then there was a long period with no news about their whereabouts or their condition.
This spring, His Beatitude Sviatoslav called for a one-for-one prisoner exchange with Russia that included women, doctors, and priests.
Even in a recent interview with Ukrinform, the state information and news agency, Sviatoslav said, “We are receiving very alarming signals that they are under daily torture. We have been seeking their release for more than a year and a half, appealing to various international institutions. We know they are alive, thank God. We are also cooperating with our authorities, looking for an opportunity to liberate them.”
After the priests were arrested, Russian occupation authorities forcibly closed the local Greek Catholic churches. The following month, December 2022, the Russian-installed governor of the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast banned the Greek Catholic Church and several other religious communities, reported Forum 18, an organization named for the religious freedom article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In February of this year, Forum 18 reported that the priests were being held in Russian “investigative prisons.” Levytskyi was being held in Russia's Rostov Region, and Heleta was being held in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.
At the time, a spokesman for the Donetsk Exarchate said that the priests were “constantly included in the exchange lists” for prisoners held by Russia and Ukraine.
Apparently, the two priests are now in Kyiv. Aleteia has requested comment from the Kyiv Patriarchate.
“On behalf of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Most Rev. Andriy Khimyak, Auxiliary Bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, and Rev. Oleksa Petriv, Head of the UGCC Department of External Relations in Ukraine, welcomed the confessors of faith on their release from prison,” the Church said. “They conveyed to Fathers Ivan and Bohdan the words of great joy from the Head of the Church and all the faithful who constantly prayed for this day to come.”
