Priest on Russian imprisonment: Prayer saved me

Ukrainian priest Bohdan Heleta has spoken about his time as a prisoner of war in Russia. Prayer saved him, said the Redemptorist priest, who belongs to the Greek Catholic Church united with Rome, in an interview with a church television station, as several media reported on Tuesday. Heleta said that during his five months in solitary confinement, he learnt what it means to be on the margins of life. "I realised there how a person can go mad; I understood there why people commit suicide."

His own prayer and the prayer of the faithful for his release saved him, the Greek Catholic priest said. "I felt the prayer of the church." During his isolation in the 77th penal colony in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Berdyansk, Heleta was tortured with constant music from a loudspeaker. "Soviet songs were played all day long." Other prisoners were tortured with electric shocks or had to memorise the words to the Russian national anthem, with the threat of punishment if they failed to do so.

Surprised by her release

Heleta spent a year and seven months in several camps in Russian captivity. In November 2022, the religious was arrested by Russian soldiers wearing balaclavas in his church in Berdyansk. He was accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons in the Russian media. At the end of June, Heleta was released as part of a prisoner exchange together with Ivan Levytsky, a priest who also belongs to the Redemptorists. "It was a big surprise," said the priest about his release. He had not expected it and had not been informed about it.

Heleta reported from his time in the other prison camps that it had not been possible to celebrate liturgy, although it was known that he and Levitsky were clergymen. As they belonged to the Greek Catholic Church, they were treated by the Russian soldiers as members of a "sect" that had split off from Orthodoxy. But they had a Russian Bible, which they read secretly at morning prayer meetings. Counselling sessions and confessions were also possible. The priests present had their long hair and beards cut off and shaved bald so that they were no longer recognisable as priests among the other prisoners. According to Heleta, his faith helped him especially in moments of uncertainty, such as during prisoner transports, interrogations and psychological torture. Then he prayed urgently to God. (rom)