On the same day in the summer of 1975 that Brezhnev declared that the freedom of belief existed in the USSR, the prosecutor and the judges of Lvov read the court's ruling that sentenced the Greek Catholic priest Michail Vinickis to five years' imprisonment and three years of exile for the so-called crippling of the girl Novosad and for instructing children in their catechism. The trial lasted an entire week. Father Vinickis was charged with psychologically affecting the girl through his prayers.
The court proposed that the priest repent for damaging the health of children by instructing them. Father Vinickis was also charged with permitting children to attend a mass which was offered in a private home.
During the summer of 1977 in Mshan Village, Gorodok Rayon, Lvov Region, a group of policemen with dogs surrounded a Ukrainian church. They destroyed everything inside after confiscating the more valuable items. The church was converted into a warehouse. The believers appealled to Kiev and Moscow, demanding that their church be returned. Moscow officials acknowledged that the faithful were correct in their complaint but did not help them get their church back.
The Chishevich Village church, Gorodok Rayon, was closed in a similar manner in the summer of 1979.
At the same time church property was confiscated in the village of Kamennyj Brod in Yavorov Rayon.
The Soviet government is constantly terrorizing certain Ukrainian priests by not allowing them to register and to find a permanent residence: Josef Budzinski, Peter Perizhokas, and others who refused to convert to the Russian Orthodox faith in 1946.
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On May 9, 1980, the Redemptorist Father Eugenijus Vosikevich was murdered in Lvov. He was to retire in several months. He was found murdered in a passageway at work. His mouth was stuffed with bread. There were no distinctive marks of a beating.
Father Vosikevich worked in Lvov as a watchman at an automobile plant.
