The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-04-03
RUSS SOVIET
SENDS PRIEST
TO HIS DEATH
After Officials PrOfessed Ig.
nOrance for Two Days,
Learned He's Executed
WHAT THEY CHARGED
Put TO Death on Charge of
Opposing Soviet Rule-Pro-
tests From Many Lands

ButchkavitZ has been executed. The
Pravada says the execution occurred
en- March 81. The newspaper 1ses-
tia aserts: "The sentence of death
on whose reprieve was refused has
been carried out. The time and
place are not given.
Monsignor Butchkavitz met death
before firing squad.
The Ivestia prints the announce
ment or an inside page under one
line head in it's court news depart
ment. In the Pravda the execution
is noted briefly without comment in
a column Of local news.
Contantine Butchkavitz. Vicar
General of the Roman Catholic
church in Russia, was sentenced to
death on March 26 after he and l6
other prelates, including Archbis-
hop Zepliah had been found guilty
of opposing the Soviet government.
The Russian Central Executive Com
mittee meeting last Thursday night
to consider appeals made in behalf
of the ecclesiastics denied clemency
in the case of Monsignor Butchkavitz
asserting that he had used his pos
ition as a priest to carry on a direct
and active state treason" The COM
mittee at the same time commuted
to 10 years imprisonment the death
sentence imposed on the Archbis
hop.
Many Lands Protect
News that Monsignor Butchkavitz
would have to pay the extreme pen
atty created stir in many lands.
Soviet officials since last Friday
had professed ignorance as to what
the final outcome of the case would
be, and last Saturday afternoon
Commissar of Justice Kurski told
correspondents that the death SEN
tence had not been carried out.
The prelates were charged in gem
eral with carrying on widespread
propaganda against the Russian gov
.ernment and were alleged to have
incited the people against the Com
munist regime. Maxim Litvinoff
was quoted as saying that the ac-
litical rather than religious. In
reaching its decision to commute
the sentence given Archbishop the
Central Executive Committee said
it had decided to modify the decree
of the court because "a certain
backward element of the Catholic
citizens of the Soviet Russia might
consider the sentence as directed
against the priests and their reli-
gion."
Trial Began March 81
The. trial of the prelate began on
March q. They were charged spec
ifically as follows: With opposing
the decree separating the church
and state; 2. With opposing seques-
tration of church treasures; g..
With engaging in campaign of ag-
itation among the Catholic clergy
and parishioners in the hope that
the churches might be closed. thus
inconveniencing the Soviet govern
ment the Vatican and impairing the
terms of the Riga treaty with Po-
land.
Foreign Minister Tchitcherin in
formed Poland yesterday that Pre-
mier Sikorski's recent pronounce
ment in regard to the sentences i'm
poed on Archbishop Zepliah and
Vicar General Butchkavitz "is un-
doubtedly an unfriendly act and
manifests an aggressive policy to-
war Russia.
Appeals Turned Down
Appeals from the outside world
which had poured in upon the Soviet
authorities had no effect in staying
the hand Of their executioners. Com
petent opinion, indeed, is that the
breaking of diplomatic relations by
outside governments or a threat of
war would not have moved the Mos
cow officials from their course.
Their last word in the case had been
spoken, it appears, when they CO.
muted to ten years Imprisonment
the death sentence upon Archbishop
Zepliah, convicted at the same time
as Vicar General Butschnavitch.
Protests from all parts Of the
world were made against the execu-
tion of the death sentence, the
American government joining in ap-
peals for clemency.
Protests of the American state
department was based on humani.
tartan grounds and set forth "the
earnest hope" that the life Of the
Vicar General might be spared.
In the trial Of the Catholic pre-
lates and priests he appeared bald
headed, rosy-faced and spectacled
an bore himself with marked seren.
! ity throughout that ordeal which