Kandrusievich: Authorities Do Not Want To Ease Conditions For Foreign Priests’ Activities In Belarus

The conditions of stay of foreign clerics in Belarus are stiffer than those created for ordinary foreign citizens.

Representatives of the Belarusian authorities do not want to ease the conditions for foreign clerics in the country, despite repeated requests from the church, Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus, Metropolitan of Minsk-Mahiliou Archbishop Tadevush Kandrusievich said at a press conference in Minsk on April 16, tut.by reports with reference to BelaPAN.

He notes that today there are about 500 Catholic priests in Belarus, of whom about 80 are citizens of other countries. According to the existing legislation, every foreign priest has to get permission from the Commissioner for Religious and National Affairs to carry out religious activities. In addition, as stated by the Catholic hierarch, the conditions of stay of foreign priests in Belarus are stiffer than those created for ordinary foreign citizens.

“There is a rule adopted by the Council of Ministers regarding foreign clerics stating that if a priest commits a public violation twice, for example, exceeds the speed of his car, they can send him out of Belarus. At the same time, from 2010, the relevant consequences for other foreigners come after five times,” – the archbishop says.

Metropolitan Kandrusievich reminds that in May 2017, he delivered a report at the Academy of Management under the ruler of Belarus. During his speech, he stated the need to update the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, since it already “does not correspond to the situation and time”.

“However, nothing happened after that. A lot of times I’ve met [with the officials] of the Lukashenka administration after that, but nothing has moved on. <...> We raise this issue very often, we write to the ruler’s administration, we appeal to the Commissioner for Religions and Nationalities, but things are still where they started,” – the Catholic hierarch states.

The delegation of the Catholic Bishops of Belarus raised the problem of the need to receive permission to serve for foreign priests during an audience with Pope Francis on February 1, 2018. After the meeting with the pontiff, Metropolitan Tadevush Kandrusievich said in an interview to the Vatican Radio that Pope Francis had been surprised by some of the problems faced by the church in Belarus.

“The pope was very surprised when he learned that 45 bishops, including nine cardinals who participated in the plenary meeting of the Council of Conferences of Bishops of Europe [in Minsk in October 2017], also had to receive permission to serve the holy mass. This is the image of the country! It was hard for him to understand it,” – Kandrusievich says.

In July 2018, Leanid Huliaka, responding to questions from citizens during a direct telephone line, said he did not consider it necessary to change the procedure for issuing permits to serve for foreign priests in the country.