You are here
Home > News > Jan Karski Society calls on Pope to intervene in Navalny case

Jan Karski Society calls on Pope to intervene in Navalny case

Bearing the name of the Polish underground soldier who was one of the first eyewitnesses of the Holocaust to report on the genocide to the Western allies, the Jan Karski Society appealed to Pope Francis to intervene in the case of Russian oppositionist Alexey Navalny.

There will be consequences if Navalny dies: US official

see more

“The milieus whose duty is to keep the memory and the mission of the legendary emissary Jan Karski alive appealed to Pope Francis to intervene so as to save the life of Russian oppositionist Alexey Navalny imprisoned by the Putinist regime,” the organisation told the Polish Press Agency and recalled that Mr Navalny “was decorated with the Jan Karski Eagle Special Award in February 2021”.

“We grant this award in the time when the UN establishes the International Day of Human Brotherhood at the behest of Pope Francis quoting his words: ‘Today there is no time for indifference. We cannot wash our hands of it, with distance, with disregard, with disinterest. Either we are fratelli [brothers] — if I may — or everything collapses. It is the frontier. The frontier on which we have to build; it is the challenge of our century; it is the challenge of our times,” reads the communique on the awarding of Alexey Navalny.

The Society’s letter to Pope Francis reads: “Your Holiness, Alexey Navalny, imprisoned by the Moscow regime, is dying in the eyes of the entire world. We beseech your intervention — a fundamental message of moral order on which our civilisation is based. These are actions that matter in extreme situations. During WWII, our patron Jan Karski proved that. We ask you to use your unprecedented moral authority to face this appalling situation.”

The letter was signed by PhD Wiesława Kozielewska-Trzaska, a representative of the Karski family, priest Professor Andrzej Szostek, rabii Professor Abraham Foxman and others.

Having started a hunger strike on March 31 to protest against poor medical care in the penal colony in Pokrov where he has been interned, Mr Navalny is facing an increasing risk of kidney failure whilst his vision deteriorates.

Mr Navalny, a prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been notifying the colony’s authorities about pains he has been suffering in his back and a loss of sensory function in his joints but to no avail.

As reported on Monday, Mr Navalny was moved from Pokrov to a hospital located in another penal colony, namely, in Vladimir.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Top