Via Interpreter:
A Greek Catholic priest has been kidnapped by unknown gunmen in Sevastopol, Crimea. According to the report, the priest was a military chaplain for the Ukrainian forces in Crimea, and had received threats but had refused to leave the peninsula.
Update
Edward Lucas who writes for The Economist received the following statement with more background on the kidnapping from Bishop Borys Gudziak, the Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Bishop Gudziak blames “pro-Russian forces”.
The abduction occurred on Saturday March 15, between 10:00-11:00 AM, in Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine. Pro-Russian armed forces abducted Fr. Mykola Kvych, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest, directly from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God, located on Silska Street 5 (near kilometer 5 of the Balaklava highway).
Fr. Kvych was seized by two men in uniform and four men in civilian clothing. The young chaplain for the Ukrainian Navy was taken to an undisclosed location where he is being held captive. A parishioner who called Fr. Kvych’s cellular phone heard abusive language on the line directed at the priest before the call was cut short. Sources confirm that Fr. Kvych is alive.
Earlier this week at the direction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarchy Fr. Kvych and other Greek Catholic priests in Crimea evacuated their wives and children to mainland Ukraine. The priests themselves returned to their parishes to be with their faithful in a time of crisis and moral and physical danger.
The call of Pope Francis for “pastors to have the smell of their sheep” has guided Catholic clergy in Ukraine during the months of peaceful protest of millions of citizens that began November 21 after President Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement of Ukraine’s association with Europe.