My thoughts and prayers remain with my friend Father Viktor in Belarus

My t houghts and prayers have ver y much remained with my friend Father Viktor in Belarus.

If you have followed my articles, you may recall that I wrote about him a few weeks ago.

He has many roles and responsibilities, but above all other things he is a priest, who cares for his people, who suffers with them and will be heroic in defending their rights and wellbeing.

He was among the first generation of priests t o be ordained aft er t he fall of the Soviet Union. Before that the church was persecuted by the communists with only a handful of priests being left to serve the faithful but hampered and harried at every turn. It is the caliber of the man that Father Viktor would choose to become a priest in the difficult circumstances of the post communism era ; when he woul d ne e d t o he l p re b ui l d a devastated, dispossessed and largely eradicated church.

It concerns me i mmensely t hat i n t he present volatile and f ebrile atmosphere, as the paranoia of a spent and degraded regime spirals out of control the casualties will grow.

Nat ura l l y , I f e a r g re at l y f or my friend.

It was recently reported that the

President of the Bishops’ Conference of Belarus was recently stopped at the border and refused re-entry into the country, while returning from a meeting in Poland.

I managed t o s p e a k t o Fat h e r Viktor last week on the phone and was delighted and relieved to find he was safe and well.

He h a d b e e n c a u g h t u p, a s I suspected he would be, on the very first evening of protest following the election results.

He and another priest colleague had joined protesters and attempted to negotiate with police to ensure the protesters safety.

To us, it may seem a countr y far away with little interest to us, but we share a common European heritage and culture were the freedom of the press and political liberty lies at the heart of who we are.

We have fought and died for these values and not just for ourselves but for others too.

For we believe these values to be human rights that define the dignity of our humanity not to be constrained or enslaved.

And they flow too from our JudeoChristian heritage, which sees us as children of God equal in dignity and freedom.

So, remember in your prayers my friend and his fellow citizens that there may be a safe and peaceful transition to freedom and democracy for them.