Head of Belarusian Catholics, Metropolitan of Minsk-Mogilev Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz returned to the country after Pope Francis asked the president about this Alexander Lukashenko , reports ” Sputnik Belarus”.
“He is not yet in Minsk, but he has already arrived in the country,” sources told the publication in Roman Catholic Church . It is noted that the Metropolitan on December 24 and 25 will hold several festive masses in two Belarusian churches. These days Catholics around the world celebrate Christmas. In Belarus, the number of Catholics is 15 percent of the total population (about 1.4 million people).
Alexander Lukashenko promised to solve the problem with the entry of the 75-year-old metropolitan after how he met with the representative of the Pope Apostolic Nuncio in Great Britain, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti . The President also invited the pontiff to the republic for treatment and called him a “people’s man”.
Earlier Lukashenko accused Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of intending to “destroy the country”. The politician said that the priest spied against Minsk on behalf of the Polish authorities. In late August, the head of the Belarusian Catholics condemned the actions of the OMON, which locked the protesters in the Red Church in Minsk during the dispersal of the protest action. Later, Kondrusevich’s Belarusian passport was canceled and he was included in the list of those prohibited from entering.