2023-07-09 15:42:51
On Sunday, July 9, Pope Francis announced the holding of the Consistory on September 30, at which 21 new cardinals will appear in the Church.
According to catholic.by, among them is the archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, who was the Apostolic Nuncio in Belarus for four years, and during this year’s Budslav Fest represented Pope Francis in our country as his special envoy. In addition, another former nuncio in Belarus will become a cardinal: an archbishop Agastyna Marketone of the first permanent representatives of the Pope in our country.
After the presidential elections of 2020, relations between the state and the church in Belarus became complicated due to the fact that many Catholic hierarchs and believers openly spoke out against the wave of violence and repression that followed the mass protests. Some priests were detained, tried and arrested for political reasons, some were forced to leave Belarus. This year in the Easter greetings of the Apostolic Nuncio in Belarus Ante Jozic spoke about prisoners who “cannot return home and meet their loved ones.” Iconic for believers, the Red Church in Minsk was closed for repairs after a fire that happened on the night of September 26, 2022. Property on an area of about 20 square meters was damaged. m, people were not hurt. The authorities closed the building until the fire-damaged communications are restored and “the results of the instrumental research of the building structures are obtained.” On October 6 of that year, the agreement on free use of the church building was canceled. On October 14, it became known that the authorities forbade parishes to hold services in the rectory, and on November 9 – in separate premises and the church yard. In mid-February 2023, believers and priests managed to inspect the Red Church from the inside. Representatives of the church committee later noted on the parish website that “traces of fire, soot and other visible damage” were not found in the worship hall. In the first half of June, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus expressed comments on the draft of the new edition of the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, noting that “religious organizations of the Catholic Church in Belarus [пасьля прыняцьця закону ў цяперашняй рэдакцыі] may face certain difficulties in implementing some parts of the proposed bill.” Alexander Lukashenko visited the Vatican in 2009 and 2016. He has repeatedly offered his services to organize a meeting of the Pope of Rome and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus. This meeting took place in Cuba in 2016. Catholicism is the second largest Christian denomination in Belarus. There are about 1.5 million Catholics in the country, including more than 10,000 Greek Catholics.
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