He had been in Poland for a few days to participate in the Marian celebrations in Czstochowa. The National Border Commission of Belarus did not explain why the ban. Suspicions that Lukashenko did not like the archbishop’s gestures and comments about the elections and his closeness to the prisoners. The Orthodox Metropolitan of Minsk, Pavel, is transferred to Russia. The new Orthodox Metropolitan in Minsk is Venjamin Tupeko.
Moscow (AsiaNews) – The Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of Minsk-Mogilev, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, was stranded on the border with Belarus, returning from Poland where he had participated in a celebrations in honor of Our Lady of Czstochowa.Kondrusiewicz himself told Radio Svoboda that he was being held at the Kuznitsa Belostokskaja border crossing, a few kilometres from his hometown of Grodno, where border guards prevented him from returning to his home country.
Last night, the official car of the prelate with the driving force crossed the border and arrived in Minsk, while the Metropolitan was returning to Poland, waiting for news.The workplace of the press explains that the prelate relies on article 30 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus., which states: “Every citizen of the Republic has the right to move freely and to decide in his apartment the territory of the Republic of Belarus, to leave the territory and leave unhindered.”The right to return to the country of origin is also guaranteed through the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified through Belarus.
When through journalists, the Belarusian National Border Commission responded with a “no comment.”
Through the site catholic.by, local Catholics ask for prayers for their Metropolitan: “At a difficult time for all of us, let us move in prayer, let us show special solidarity and both in one and both situations, because we are a great family.”
Some Catholics say the ban is due to prelate interventions and calls for dialogue, as well as initiative to help those arrested during the last protests.Although Kondrusiewicz has had a smart date with President Alexandr Lukashenko in the past, his most recent comments were not well won through the Belarusian leader.
In recent days, the archbishop has given a lengthy interview to the devout Polish television channel TV Trwam, protecting the rights of the Belarusian population.
On the same day, the Orthodox metropolitan Pavel (Ponomarev, photo 3) moved from Minsk to a southern Russian headquarters in Kuban, with an organization of priests among his relatives.The prelate thanked the many faithful to toast in the morning farewell liturgy, saying that “he never made distinctions among others for political reasons, in fact, alas of priests who care about politics!Array… we have to communicate only in church, not in the press or on the Internet, there are other people in charge.”
In the evening, the new Metropolitan of Minsk, Venjamin (Tupeko, photo 4), presided over a moleben to the Mother of God.In his homily, he observed that “the other Belarusians had a wonderful judgment, exactly the year of the coronavirus pandemic, with the social unrest of some daysArray …when a construction collapses, there is no talk of how it was built, but it is painted in combination to put it back on its feet. Venjamin proposed that everyone have interaction in “a wonderful and fruitful prayer, the only paintings that give genuine results.”
He had been in Poland for a few days to participate in Marian celebrations in Czstochowa.The Belarusian National Border Commission did not explain why the ban.Suspicions that Lukashenko did not like the archbishop’s gestures and comments about the elections and their closeness to the prisoners. The Orthodox Metropolitan of Minsk, Pavel, is transferred to Russia.The new Orthodox metropolitan in Minsk is Venjamin Tupeko.