MINSK — Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko signed a highly repressive new law on religion Oct. 31 in what some religious leaders are calling a decisive step back to the police state tactics that once terrorized believers.
The law, loudly protested by a wide spectrum of Protestants, Jews, minority Orthodox Christians and Eastern-rite Catholics, sets stringent rules for the government registration of religious organizations. They are required to have been recognized in 1982 when Belarus was part of the atheistic Soviet Union.
Registration is necessary to publish, organize religious schools or host foreigners.
“Only two or three of our communities will pass the registration process,” said Yauhiyn Androsik, a spokesman in Minsk for the 23-parish Greek Catholic Church, which is loyal to the Vatican but worships according to the Eastern-rite and operated underground for much of the 20th century. “There were not many Greek Catholics in Soviet times because they destroyed us. They persecuted us without stop.”
In addition, religious communities with fewer than 20 members are now illegal, banned from worshipping, even in private homes.
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