2023-07-07 19:30:44
The Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic condemned the position of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the establishment of the Apostolic Administration for Eastern Rite Catholics by the Vatican in Belarus.
The Council of the BNR believes that the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church is trying to “impede the creation of the Apostolic Administration for believers of the Byzantine rite in Belarus.”
“Belarus (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) has traditionally been a place of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence of different religious communities: the Greek-Catholic majority, as well as the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant minorities, as well as non-Christian minorities, primarily represented by Muslims and Jews, who were found in Belarus asylum after being expelled from other countries. Tolerance and respect for diversity were, are and will remain one of the main values for the Belarusian people,” says the statement of the Council of the BNR.
According to the Council, “the main source of interreligious tension in Belarus is the Russian Orthodox Church, forcibly planted by Belarusians in the first half of the 19th century, and in its current form formed in the Stalinist USSR in 1943 and represented today by an independent exarchate under the false name “Belarusian Orthodox Church”. .. In modern Belarus, the ROC is one of the ideological pillars of A. Lukashenka’s regime and enjoys unjustified privileges from the authoritarian Lukashenka state, while many other Belarusian Christian churches suffer discrimination, confiscation of property and repression against priests.”
The statement also mentions the sharply negative attitude of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church towards the autocephalous Orthodox Church:
“Belarusian autocephalous Orthodoxy, which is a true continuation of local Orthodox traditions in Belarusian lands from the Middle Ages and which for many years has been and remains one of the spiritual strongholds of many Belarusians in exile, is forced to exist in Belarus under conditions of particularly severe persecution.”
According to the Council of the BNR, the activities of the ROC branch in Belarus, which “does not condemn the violence, murders and torture for which the Lukashenka regime is responsible”, and “openly supports Russian military aggression and blesses Russian invaders who commit war crimes on the territory of Ukraine”. should become a subject of investigation in the future democratic Belarus.
In response to reports that the Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus expressed its displeasure to the Vatican due to the establishment of the Apostolic Administration for Eastern Rite Catholics by Pope Francis, the Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic stated:
“Traditional Belarusian churches of the Eastern Rite, including the Belarusian Greek-Catholic Church, the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, have the full right to independently determine their internal organizational structure, and should enjoy all the support of the future democratic Belarusian state as institutions that form historical and spiritual value. “.
Earlier today it became known that the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church is a metropolitan Benjamin stated that the development of the Greek-Catholic Church in Belarus allegedly threatens “tension in interreligious relations”.
As noted on the official website of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC), which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church, the issue of the development of the Greek-Catholic Church was discussed at a meeting on June 30 by Metropolitan Benjamin, Papal Legate, Prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches of the Holy See, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti and apostolic nuncio in Belarus Ante Jozic.
On March 30, 2023, the Pope of Rome approved the decision to establish the Apostolic Administration for believers of the Byzantine rite in Belarus – Greek Catholics. As of the beginning of the 2020s, there are 14 Greek-Catholic parishes in Belarus, including four in Minsk, with several thousand believers. The Union (Greek-Catholic) Church, created as a result of the Union of Brest in 1596, existed on the territory of the current Republic of Belarus until its liquidation by the tsarist authorities in 1839. Unionism lasted until 1876 in Podlasie. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the absolute majority of Belarusians were Unionists. In Galicia, where unionism was preserved in the Austrian Empire, this church created a strong support for civil society and the national movement of Ukrainians. The Greek Catholic Church was revived in post-Soviet Belarus.
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