VATICAN CITY (NC) — The hanging of an Eastern-rite priest in the Ukraine by Soviet police last Jan. 30 was reported Sept. 25 by the Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano.
«Religious persecution in the Ukraine, denounced at the (world) Synod of Bishops in 1971 by Ukrainian prelates, continues to reap its victims,» L’Osservatore Romano said. «Father Michele Luckyj was hanged by the Soviet police in the town of Drohobyc in Western Ukraine.
«The reason: having pursued religious activity, celebration of the Holy Mass… and distribution of the Eucharist.»
The Vatican paper reported that the priest’s religious activities had been noted by the police and that he had been warned three times «that such activity is considered illegal in the Soviet Union.»
L’Osservatore Romano reported that its source related that Father Luckyj had been called upon at dawn on Jan. 30, the day devoted to the memory of Saints John, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, by Soviet plainclothes men who asked him to visit a sick Christian.
«This was only an excuse,» wrote the paper. «Led into a nearby wood, Father Luckyj was tied and hanged to a tree. To simulate a crime, the police put a note in his pocket which said that Father Luckyj had chosen suicide after reading the Bible.
«But the suicide note was called untrue by the Christians in the village who knew the priest’s zeal and holiness.»
