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Welcome to Thursday. Catholic clergy in Belarus face continued sanctions under authoritarian rule of the president. It was a year like no other, making NCR's choice for Newsmaker of the Year particularly challenging, writes NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf.
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** For Catholics in Belarus, winter brings fears of renewed repression ([link removed])
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When two priests were arrested in Belarus last week amid continued protests against the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, there were fears of a full-scale campaign against the minority Catholic Church.

Jesuit Fr. Viktar Zhuk and Greek Catholic Fr. Alyaksei Varanko, both from Vitebsk near Belarus' northeastern border with Russia, were confined under house arrest a day later, but were told they faced charges of "participating in unauthorized events."

They were only the latest Catholic clergy to face sanctions, three months on from the forced exile of their church's veteran leader, Minsk and Mohilev Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz.

"There's real repression here now — the authorities are shocked at the level of Catholic engagement and struggling to contain it," Kaciaryna Laurynenka, a Catholic theologian teaching church history and canon law in Vitebsk, told NCR. "There were hopes last summer that everything would change radically in a month or two if enough people took to the streets. Today, it's difficult to foresee what will happen. But if you're active as a Catholic, you can expect trouble."

You can read more of the story here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* The head of Belarus's Catholic Church, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, was barred from reentering his country on Aug. 31 ([link removed]) , amid mass protests over a dubious election — after he issued a pastoral letter warning a possible slide toward civil war.

* In October, Kondrusiewicz said the Vatican was doing everything in its power ([link removed]) to resolve the situation and help him return to Belarus.

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** 2020: A year like no other ([link removed])
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When it came time for NCR staff to brainstorm ideas for our "Newsmaker of the Year," we had to recognize that 2020 is, indeed, a year like no other, writes NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf.

Schlumpf notes that 2020 was the year of coronavirus, with more than 300,000 of our fellow Americans and another 1.3 million fellow humans losing their lives to the disease. It was also a year of reckoning on racial justice, of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other victims of police violence and of protests in the streets demanding change. And it was an election year, likely the "most consequential election of our lifetimes," she writes.

In our church, it was the year of the McCarrick report, and of Pope Francis' third encyclical, which challenged populist nationalism, unbridled capitalism, just war teaching and the death penalty.

"So, as we considered Catholics who personify the news of this most unusual year, we had a long list," Schlumpf writes.

You can read more of Schlumpf's column here ([link removed]) .

More background:
* NCR chose President-elect Joe Biden, our nation's second Catholic president, as our 2020 Newsmaker of the Year ([link removed]) .

* Watch a Facebook Live video of the announcement ([link removed]) with Schlumpf, NCR national correspondent Christopher White, NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters and child advocate and best-selling author Mark Kennedy Shriver.

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** More headlines
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* In 2004, a major assembly of the Asian church was eager to hear from then-Bishop Wilton Gregory, who was ending his term as president of the U.S. bishops' conference during an intense period of the sex abuse crisis, writes Tom Quigley, former longtime policy adviser on Asia for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops ([link removed]) .

* ICYMI: Archbishop Paul Gallagher reaffirmed the Vatican's recent shift away from accepting the global system of nuclear deterrence ([link removed]) , telling a webinar that nuclear weapons only give "a false sense of security."

* Being in the presence of transgender people made something shift inside her, from fear and avoidance to a rehumanizing of her attitude, writes Lavina D'Souza, a Canossian sister from Mumbai, India ([link removed]) .

* Global Sisters Report held an extended discussion last week ([link removed]) with the leaders of the International Union of Superiors General and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

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** Final thoughts
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NCR Forward members are invited to an hour-long Advent retreat ([link removed]) at 2 p.m. today. Join Sr. Julia Walsh, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, and ValLimar Jansen, a composer and performer, to talk about the journey from chaos to faith as we enter the fourth week of Advent. Become an NCR Forward member today ([link removed]) to get access to this special event.

Until Friday,

Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Twitter: @ncrSLY ([link removed])

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